On Thursday, October 11, 2012, the final chapter in the life of Beverly T. Martin was written. She passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 surrounded by her loving family at Wesley Nursing Home in Saratoga Springs, N. Y. I am dedicating this post to pay my everlasting respect to a very remarkable woman, who in my eyes will always be deserving of much love and adoration. Though her beginnings in this world were most humble indeed, Bev lived her life with gusto, never shied away from a challenge, and always found the positive side of even the worst negative situation.
To strangers, she was just your average country hard working family oriented woman, raising a family with good old fashioned values, and enjoying what life had to offer. When she wasn't busy with her home and family, she babysat many other children, donated her time for years as a den mother for the local Boy Scout Troop, was a fixture at the local church, and even found time for a weekly card game with friends. The need for family connection was so deeply instilled in myself and all my cousins thanks to the annual re-union parties that Aunt Bev organized and held. It is my fervent hope that the future generations of our maternal line will continue this time honored tradition so as to instill the same need in their children and their grandchildren and so forth.
When I first began my odyssey to discover and document my family history, the first person I turned to for information on my maternal line was Aunt Bev. She proved to be a deep well of valuable information providing names, dates, places, events, etc. If it were not for her amazing memory, and continued appreciation for my efforts to delve into answers behind family photos, and many documents that were uncovered during my research, I would have never been able to fulfill a promise made to her, which was her very own personal family history book. I was thrilled when my cousin Susan shared a picture with me on Facebook of her mom looking at her new book. Now, it is safely guarded at the home of the eldest child, Teena. I will always miss the phone calls, where I would either ask Bev a question, or update her on a new piece of family information I uncovered. I will also miss sending her cards, sometimes enclosing a fresh printed copy of an ancestral photo to share with Bev. She is at rest now. Her life's work is complete. She was a woman of many accomplishments. She made a difference in this world, and left her mark on each and everyone of us.
