BOZEMAN — Downtown Bozeman is the current home of I-Ho's Korean Grill, but that's not where it started. I-Ho’s life in Montana began in college at both the University of Montana in Missoula and Eastern Montana College, now MSU-Billings. Her husband is from Billings, and he didn't want to live in Missoula—that meant destination Bozeman.
“So he said no we are not going to go stay here in Missoula. So we are going to go Bozeman. I don’t know anything about Bozeman. So we came here for me so I can go back to school,” said I-Ho. “But instead of going back to school, I got a first job, was Great China Wall, chinese restaurant. I did it very well one year. And then I ask my husband, I want to do something else. And then he made my food cart. At that time, only two food carts—hot dogs and me.”
Fast forward a few years and I-Ho runs for and wins a seat on the Bozeman City Commission. The food cart becomes a brick-and-mortar restaurant. All is well until this Spring. I-Ho's husband returns home from his college reunion back east.
“When he came home, he find out and he realize I am totally different. I’m sleeping all the time, and then he find out I couldn't walk very well, I could not talk, so he said, ‘I-Ho this is not you, something is not right,’ so he took me to the emergency room and emergency young doctor almost cried. He did a CT test, find out I have glioblastoma,” said I-Ho.
WEB EXTRA: Watch Chet's extended, uncut interview with I-Ho Pomeroy
Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer. Treatment includes surgery, radiation and chemo—lots of chemo. I-Ho has done it all with the same approach she's had in running her business or working on the city commission.
“Every three months, MRI, how the cancer is doing or not. So I cannot control but I do my best, how about that?”
And I-Ho continues her walks and her yoga practice, aiming to maintain a sense of normalcy. Although she has had to make some changes.
“During the chemo, I decided not to go to hot yoga because it’s a little bit too much. When i do chemo, you know chemo is killing everything, right? So i relax a little bit,” she said.
For I-Ho, relaxing includes walking around town, her town, a visit to the hot springs, and, after chemo, an eventual return to hot yoga. Relaxing is different for everyone.
When told it’s hard to picture her relaxing, given her lifetime of hard work, I-Ho said, “I have worked hard, now I’m relaxing, how about that?”
How about that indeed.
