Arthea Cottam Rahimzadeh

Our beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away May 7th, 2021. Born in St. George, Utah on January 31st, 1942, Artie, as she was affectionately called, was fiercely proud of being a member of the Cottam family and of the family’s deeply-rooted pioneer heritage. She grew up a tomboy, a rancher’s daughter who loved nothing more than to roam the red hills and desert valleys of Southern Utah. One day in 1960, she and a friend picked up two Iranian exchange students on a whim and gave them a ride to campus. One of those dark, handsome men was her much adored husband, Mohamed Rahimzadeh, who proceeded her in death.
Most people did not get to know Artie especially well, due to her social anxiety, but for her family she was very much the character. Artie always had some eccentric thing she was interested in, whether it was the mystical energy of crystals, alien landings, the healing power of tree-hugging, the number of times she had been reincarnated, or the ghosts that communed with her in her basement. Life with her was always fabulously entertaining! Intensely curious about most everything, she loved nothing more in the world than to talk about books she had read, ideas she had pondered, and places she wished she had the courage to visit. Because she was always at home, she devoted herself entirely to her children and grandchildren. She was the best playmate and prankster you could ever ask for, making up games, playing endless practical jokes, and hosting long formal tea parties featuring Diet Coke and M&Ms.
Artie passed away on her own terms. Though afflicted with dementia, she nevertheless insisted that she would not move to a retirement home. Until the end she was healthy, living independently in her home beneath Mount Olympus, until she fell and broke her hip in late April; ten days later she passed peacefully on.
Artie would have abhorred the idea of a room full of people focusing their attention on her. So there was no funeral, no flowers—just a small family dinner where we told stories and laughed. Because few loved communing with nature as much as Artie, and because she had a deep, instinctive connection with animals, should you wish, a donation in her name to the Best Friends Animal Society would make a newly arrived soul in heaven very happy.
Goodbye, Grandma Artie. May there be lots of Diet Coke, hotdogs, and potato chips in heaven.