Skip to main content

Martha My Dear...




My sister Martha's 1969 HS Grad pic.
Martha and Me
(In Spiro T. Agnew shirt!) in
1970's
"Martha, My Dear, You have been my inspiration through the years..." (Paul McCartney).
My younger sister Martha went in to a hospital with back pain in October 2007. She was diagnosed with stage 4, metasticized breast cancer. By October 2008, after going through chemo and radiation, the cancer spread to her brain and it was all over.
She was in Rose Arbor hospice facility for about a month. The staff there was amazing and I will cherish them forever. I was with Martha the night she died, on my birthday, 11-23-2008. I feel honored to have been her sister. She is inside of me now. I want to drink a little, get back to golf in the spring after so many years of not playing, and just enjoy life the way she so wanted to do herself.
Her funeral is Dec. 6th in our hometown. There will be a visitation with some of her many photos on cd, a Memorial Service with comments about her life, and a luncheon on her behalf given by my brothers and me. We are sending her off with a Scottish theme Bonnie Lassie Martha Mae.
I have a big reason to make it to heaven one day and see her smiling face again.
I love and miss you Martha..."More than you will ever know".

Comments

Willie Baronet said…
Marilyn, that is so touching.
Anonymous said…
Hello Friend
I have been thinking of you and tonight i had time to tinker on the puter after i did our 2008 taxes. i hadnt been to your blog in such a long time and i had fun reading and looking at this picture of your life. as always, i enjoy your way of putting your thoughts into words. cant wait to read the book when its ready.
i have a couple chapters to add to mine :)
life on the point is quiet with lots of snow and very few people around. i arrived home day before yesterday and will be here for the entire month of february. my son is still healing from treatment with one good report so far. he has tests and exams in march and april, but the real test is measured in time...can he stay cancer free for 5 years.
now that you have retired, have you gotten your life together!!???!! i retired 5 years ago and still dont have it all together. the picutres are still in boxes, the papers still in piles and the closets still overflowing!! but i have made progress and for that i am grateful.
looking forward to seeing you soon and maybe we can have fun on the point this summer.
see ya later, neighbor lady
sue d
dont know how to send this so it will say anonymous but you know its from me!

Popular posts from this blog

Holding On...

Mom was dehydrated last weekend, sending her to ER. My sister called upset that she would not last. My younger brother suggested we should have a plan in place for her funeral. I agreed because I don't want to have to make decisions when the time comes, but am hoping against hope we don't have to give her up yet. Went to see her yesterday. Took our grandson Jake also. As I approached Mom to wheel her out of her room she looked up with her sweet eyes saying, "Marilyn" and my heart melted. Just being near her is comforting and it was sad seeing her struggling to answer anything we asked her as if she could not access information in her brain. Jake played cards with my sister and me and my younger brother, we call "the funny one", injected his humor. Still, the time seems fleeting when with her. Putting my all into this week as the school yearbook is due and one art show and then it is free sailing just about to the end of the school year. I so wish I lived clo

Pocket Call

Woke to the sound of my cell phone ringing..it was Bob's phone calling me from his pocket. He and buddy Denny run around together and could hear some of their conversation though they were not aware the phone had triggered. Spent yesterday out of state seeing my mother Audra. She's 86 and in a resthome. I used to be more of a Daddy's girl and have missed him every day in the 12 yrs. since he has been gone. But watching my mother go through the wrenching caregiving of her husband, financial loss, then the decline of her own health...and eventually her smoking and catching herself on fire, the strength she showed recovering from her skin-grafting...well, it was just plain horrible but she seldom complained. During the years of growing up Mom made all four of us feel as if we were only children. She would be up until 2 a.m. ironing mountains of clothing and sneak into our rooms at night to put them away as we slept. Her kitchen was spotless, with a hot meal on the table every

It's November...

I was opening a big trunk in our bedroom to unpack the Christmas items I have saved through the years for the holidays. There are two that I will never part with from Linda (who passed away suddenly May '09). You know how you open each tissue wrapped item and get that "Oh, I'd forgotten I had these"...well, that's what I was thinking as I opened these precious bundles... One was an angel Linda found...she repainted the blonde hair to black and gave it to Beth. The other she was bursting at the seams with excitement to give to me (and Bob), was a Christmas Tree Farm Scene... . They are both reminders of how much love Linda put into everything she did. It wasn't money, but downright thoughtfulness that set her apart from others. This is a very trying month for me as my sister Martha died a year ago next Monday, on my birthday. I have decided that for me to sit around or sleep due to depression is wasting the life Martha and Linda so desperately wanted to live. S