Louise Gilliland

Louise Elizabeth Gilliland, age 71, of Denver, passed away on Sunday, February 19, 2023.

Louise was born in February, 1952 in Hastings, Michigan to the late David Hoffman and Lottie (Dawson) Hoffman. The middle child between two brothers, Dave and Doug, she attended Lowell High School and graduated from Central Michigan University in 1974. She moved to Colorado in 1976, and gave birth to her son, Nathan Ragolia, in 1981. Louise held a variety of careers in her life, working as a Nurse’s Assistant and RNA in eldercare facilities and in a hospital during a brief stint in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and in multiple roles at a Castle Rock, CO-based magnet manufacturer. Her best and favorite job, she’d have definitely told you, was being a mom.

In her free time, Louise enjoyed reading, walking (and often walking in a summer’s rain), watching movies, having a few beers while watching the Broncos or Avalanche play, or rooting on her beloved Maize and Blue, University of Michigan football team. She loved Southwestern art and history, she collected teddy bears, and she was a loving mother to several dogs and cats including, Louie, Bandit, Ozzie, Zoey, Sadie, and lastly, Barbarella. She always had a green thumb, keeping as many plants as she could wherever she was. Louise loved music, from classical and jazz, to the rock and roll of her youth, and she really liked to dance to Motown hits on the weekends. She held a firm belief in the mystery and magic in the world. And she had a strong faith in God, and Jesus’s teachings, wishing for a more loving and egalitarian world, and often quoting Luke 18:25 to her son: “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Above all, Louise was a kind, compassionate, hardworking woman (and mother) who believed in fairness, women’s rights, peace, and love.

Louise is survived by her son, Nathan Ragolia, and daughter-in-law Jenny Ragolia, of Wilmington, DE. She was preceded in death by her parents.