On July 1, we lost our dear Randina, who passed away at her home in Walsenburg, Colorado, with her husband, Talbert, by her side. Randina Chestelson was born on September 4, 1951, the daughter of Sigurd V. and Myra Chestelson. She will be sadly missed by all who knew and loved her. Randina grew up in Gays Mills and graduated from North Crawford High School in 1969. She married Bill Hutchison in 1970, and together they had a son, Wade Hutchison.  Randina studied cosmetology and worked as a cosmetologist before attending college at UW-Platteville. She graduated from UW-Platteville in December of 1982, with a degree in Industrial Engineering, and followed her opportunity to work in that field to Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was employed by Brown Disc Manufacturing Inc. where she worked for the next several years. There she later met and married Talbert Mead, who was the love of her life! They resided in Waldenburg Colorado and had a hobby of raising horses on their land. She is survived by her husband, Talbert, her son, Wade, (Carmen) , her granddaughter, Kylie Hutchison, and her grandson, Trey Hutchison, and her mother, Myra Chestelson, and brother Sigurd,  (Marsha) Chestelson. She is also survived by her nieces and nephews Lara (Joshua) Dudgeon, Roman (Heather)Chestelson, and Megan (Larry) Swiggum. She is preceded in death by her Father Sigurd V. Chestelson and her brother Christopher Chestelson.

Any remembrances can be sent to Talbert, Mead, P.O. Box 923, Walsenburg, CO, 81089–1093. The following is an excerpt from the wonderful days of Randina and Marsha being kids growing up in Gays Mills. They were friends across the highway from each other and spent days together with their ponies and horses, dogs, and rabbits, raccoons and cats. This excerpt is taken from the Crawford County Independent, Wednesday, April 22, 1964, from “Small Fry,” the weekly column written by Marsha (Hagar) Chestelson. It chronicles just a glimpse of a day in the life of Randina, when she was a young girl.

Crawford County Independent

Gays Mills, Wisconsin

Wednesday, April 22, 1964

SMALL FRY

by Marsha Hagar

• Saturday, Randina and I were up at 4:30 to ride horses. It was dark, so we decided to wait until it was a little lighter. While we waited in her garage, we saw a light go on in Rusty's room. Good thing it wasn't Rusty, or he'd have had the whole house up--it was Dad. We went out to Mrs. Ford's and played with Sneeze, the calf. Mr. and Mrs. Ford weren't up yet so we cleaned Floyd's barn and fed the cows. The tank was low, and we filled it up. It overflowed while we were in the barn. We were getting hungry around 7:00 o'clock. Just as we were coming out of the barn, Floyd was coming out to feed the cows. Since we had done the work for him, he milked the cow. We went in and had a glass of fresh milk and a couple of pieces of toast. Mrs. Ford said she was going to make bread that afternoon. We came up for a little while and had some buns she made for us. Mrs. Ford calls her house the “filling station" for us because we stop and fill up on bread and milk.