Brigitte (‘Gitti’) Trottier
Brigitte Trottier, a longtime resident of Ajijic, died August 14, at the age of 74.
She was born on September 23, 1942 in Konigsburg, East Prussia. In 1945, her mother escaped the war with Brigitte, her two sisters and a brother, via the Baltic Sea to the German island of Sylt.
After several years in a refugee camp, they located in Landstuhl, Germany, where Brigitte graduated with a degree in Home Economics in 1959. After gaining experience as a medical receptionist, she worked for the U.S. Air Force from 1961 to 1965, at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, during which time she met and married Oskar Poellman.
Trottier lived near Paris while her husband served in the German Air Force from 1967 to 1971. Upon completion of his military service, the couple moved to Cologne, Germany, where she served as a floor manager/buyer for an exclusive woman’s wear establishment, the Mantelhaus Goertz Department Store.
Following this retail experience, she and her husband opened and operated five photo-finishing outlets in Cologne. In 1987, they retired to the Canary Islands. After nine years of the “good life,” they decided to travel through the United States and eventually wound up in Ajijic.
The marriage, however, ended in divorce. Some time later she met Donald Allan Trottier, and they were married in 2002 in Gold Beach, Oregon.
The couple then returned to Ajijic and lived in La Floresta.
Trottier was known and loved by many, including the customers who came from far and wide for her gluten-free bread and other baked goods. She loved Mexico, music, dancing, yoga, knitting, sewing, cooking and playing Canasta.
Trottier is survived by her daughter, Patricia Poellman Hesse, and two grandchildren, Kim Elisabeth Hesse and Rico Philippe Hesse, all of Cologne, Germany. Her husband, Allan, died in January of this year at the Ohana Assisted Living Home in San Juan Cosala.
A memorial service will be held Sunday, October 22, 2 p.m. on the grounds of Chapinaya, west of Ajijic, where she and her first husband had owned property when they came to Ajijic. Per her wishes, her ashes, as well as those of Allan Trottier, will be spread at the ceremony.