Reading, Vermont

Helen F. "Nell" Hamlen, 85, passed away August 17, 2022 in the Cedar Hill Assisted Living Facility in Windsor, Vermont.

Born in Montclair New Jersey October 22, 1936, she was the daughter of the late Kerby Heath Fisk and Grace Thornton (Emery) Fisk. She was a graduate of Montclair Kimberley Academy and Bradford Junior College in Haverhill, MA. In her earlier years she enjoyed helping educate elementary school children. A highlight was a trip to Tanzania Africa, becoming immersed in local culture. She was an enthusiastic bird watcher, her Sibley's peppered with notes and details of her birding trips with friends. She enjoyed over the years a succession of Golden Retrievers, each one a devoted companion.

Her lifelong love of horses, however, was the source of her dearest connections. She rode to the hounds as a member of the Norfolk Hunt in Massachusetts before moving to Reading Vermont where she proudly built the House on Heartbreak Hill, which she ran as a bed and breakfast. Breakfast being a term used loosely. Many repeat visitors were fellow competitors in endurance riding and carriage driving, and all equestrian disciplines offered at GMHA, and her larger than life personality kept everyone around her entertained. She wintered in Aiken South Carolina so she could continue her equine activities year-round.

She was a supporter of the Nature Conservancy and Audubon, a founding member of the Myopia Driving Club and a former member of the Green Mountain Horse Association and St James Church in Woodstock Vermont.

She leaves cousins Rebecca Eaton, James Emery Conant Eaton, and Sally Emery, niece Anne Dailey and nephew Richard Dailey, and her dear friends, Pam Stone of Essex, MA and Nancy Gaynor of West Windsor, VT. She was predeceased by her sister, Comer Fisk Polak, a nephew, Phillip Dailey, her beloved most recent canine companion, Gidget, and many red squirrels who made their final trip to her bird feeders.

A celebration of life will take place on Sunday Oct. 23 at the Green Mountain Horse Association Youth Center in South Woodstock, Vermont beginning at 12:noon

Those who wish may make memorial contributions in her name to GMHA, PO Box 8, South Woodstock, VT 05071