“Gram” Polly (Pauline) Prahm Ehrman of North Woodstock, NH, born in Bangor, ME on September 28, 1946, died peacefully at her home on April 5, 2024 after a year- long battle with pancreatic cancer.  

Gram did not need a college education to be a professional in the art of child rearing and understanding people.  She left home right after graduation at age 17 taking a bus to Portland, ME, lived at the YMCA and went to business school.  Her favorite career moves included an early job as a rollerskating server for A & W; working for Hartford Insurance where she spent her Friday paycheck at G. Fox, her favorite department store according to her husband.  Hartford is the city where they met and fell in love.   Other pivotal career choices included working for YieldHouse Furniture; being a receptionist for a team of psychologists; and later still, a medical secretary for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center through Dartmouth Hitchcock oncology.   

Knowing Gram was a little like knowing the grandmother of the universe.  Her home was always an open door to neighbors and friends, especially those of her children growing up in Merrimack, NH.  This may have had something to do with being one of seven siblings herself, or maybe just the inherent patience and sense of humor which marked her parenting style.  Whatever the reason, Gram came to be another mother to countless friends and grandmother to  the children growing up around her grandchildren both on Martha’s Vineyard and in North Woodstock, especially those in their neighborhood of Alpine Village.    

Gram was the kind of mom who took us to the beach on a rainy or overcast day, set up the lawn chairs, looked up at the sky and told us, “No worries, kids, this is going to burn off.”  And nine out of ten times, she was right.   She encouraged us to work hard but also to have fun, and, based on her friends’ comments in her Brewer High School yearbook, she had tons of fun living in the moment.  She believed in sleepovers and tenting in our yard, telling the truth, camping, completing chores, sledding whenever it snowed, extra butter on popcorn, cutting down one’s own Christmas tree, and laughing hard above all else. 

A fantastic bowler in her 20s and 30s, Gram hardly missed a sporting event, band or choral concert, whether at Merrimack High School, Northeastern University, Connecticut College, or, later on, Martha’s Vineyard and Lin-Wood School for her grandchildren.  She was known far and wide in the NH ski racing circuits to walk with her crampons and one ski pole to stand in the coldest of temps just to give a hug or a hot chocolate at the finish.  

Famous for baking sugar cookies at Christmas, spinach pie, and “Polly’s chicken and rice,” her granddaughters especially loved cooking with Gram during their visits.  She is also on record for having taught over 500 people in her lifetime how to give a proper hug. Her talent for hugging was only outdone by her ability to say the right thing at the right time when people needed to hear it most.  

Spending time with her family and friends filled her memories as  Gram loved and laughed fiercely.  May 31 would have been their 55th wedding anniversary.  She and Pops took some big trips to Alaska, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia and, of course, their winter road trips to visit old friends along the east coast and Florida.  Her favorite places and traditions included sunsets in Menemsha, the Annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair, Christmas Eve dinner with her son’s family and Christmas Day dinner with her daughter’s, Cascade Park, the JE Henry Trail, biking with and without Pop, and lunchtime picnics at the Green Bridge and Mirror Lake.   

Polly is predeceased by her parents Helen Sullivan and Harris Prahm, along with her stepfather Louis Sullivan, her brother Gordon Prahm, her niece Michelle Pilcher, and nephew Brian Seippel.  She is survived by her husband of almost 55 years Tony Ehrman, aka Pop Pops, her daughter Heather (Geoff Krill), her son Greg (Holly Thomas), grandchildren Ella, Carver, Greta and Hazel; sisters Sue Matson (Karl Matson), C.I. Seippel, Laurie Dean (Glenn Dean), Rosie Baker (Ken Baker), and Maryann Howse; sister in law Lynn Iovino (Frank Iovino); many loving cousins, nieces and nephews.   

A Celebration of Life will be held June 24 at 11 AM at Cascade Park in North Woodstock, NH located across the street from the Woodstock Inn and Station, where lunch will follow.  Donations may be made in memory of Polly to  North Country Home Health & Hospice Agency at 536 Cottage St. Littleton, NH 03561.