Colrain, MA – Annmarie Waldsmith, Colrain MA, left all who knew and loved her on May 2, 2026 due to a sudden and unexpected catastrophic medical event. She was 42 years old. We will miss her energetic personality, her boundless creativity, her wicked sense of humor, unique problem solving, her very quick and forthright wit, and her overflowing love for everyone she cared about, humans and animals alike.
Annmarie spent her first years in Burlington, MA and Ashby, MA. She moved with her family to Sudbury, MA during elementary school, and graduated from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in 2002. There she left her mark on the L-S Student Radio Station and the drama productions she either acted in or served as support staff for. After graduation, Annmarie joined City Year-Boston working with inner city children and on city park rehabilitations, mainly in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
After completing her City Year commitment Annmarie spent the next several years as a nanny, helping raise Ava and Tierney. A chance encounter while riverside fishing with a friend led to her marketing for Pearls Premium Grass Seed. She traveled up and down the north and central Atlantic states pitching the product and holding seeding workshops. Raised on a hobby farm, this job reinforced her love of growing things and led to the realization she could make a career stemming from that love.
Annmarie remained in the “plant” business the rest of her life. She spent several years at Mahoney’s Garden Center/Brighton. There she worked her way up to Greenhouse Manager, returning for many years during Christmas Tree Season after moving to Western MA. While living in Brighton she honed her skills as a pool player, a game she enjoyed playing with her Dad. Partly due to her skill, her team made the APA Amateur Team Championship in Las Vegas twice, once when she won the final qualifying match at 8 months pregnant during the lunch break of her birthing class!
Annmarie moved to Colrain with Bo when he was six months old, living with her mother until her death. She worked on the gardening crew for Snow and Sons for several years. Wanting to be more involved in garden planning and installations she hired on with Green Mountain Gardening in Vermont for a couple of seasons before starting her own boutique gardening business, Garden Gnome, LLC, two years ago.
She was the beloved mother of William “Bo” Cahill and is also survived by her mother, Ingeborg “Bing” Waldsmith, her brothers, Brendan Waldsmith (Giselle) and William “Jake” Waldsmith, III (Kate Durand). Her father, William “Bill” Waldsmith, Jr. predeceased her in 2013. Other special people in her life included James Cahill, Uncle Roy Thomassen, her cousin besties Eleanor and Aaron Lowry, and her new love, Scott Turner. Along with her immediate family, several aunts and uncles, numerous extended family members, and a whole lot of friends will miss her till the end of their days.
If you knew Annmarie and would like to celebrate her life, please join us for a casual gathering by the river on Saturday, June 20th at The Flat, 15 Franklin Hill Road, Colrain, MA beginning at 1:30 PM.
The most appreciated expression of condolence would be an offering of your favorite, non-invasive perennial plant or a small-at-maturity flowering shrub to include in a memorial garden.
Monetary donations in Annmarie’s memory may be made to the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, 11 French Drive, PO Box 598, Boylston, MA 01505-0598. Checks to the Garden should be made out to the Worcester Horticultural Society.
The family extends its grateful thanks to Johnson Funeral Home, Shelburne Falls, MA for their compassionate and professional handling of the final arrangements.
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