Grandma Martin

Cynthia Elizabeth Martin

August 9th, 1918 to June 11th, 2010

Last Thursday we buried my last remaining grandparent. She lived to the ripe old age of 91, almost 92. She wasn't healthy, nor could she recognize most of her family members anymore, so I suppose it wasn't a surprise to learn of her passing, but it's still surreal, nonetheless.

We travelled to Victoria to attend her funeral (or life celebration if you like to swing that way). It was a whirlwind, "drive all day (and late into the night) to get there", kind of a trip. Originally I was going to go by myself, via airplane. But for some reason I kept procrastinating purchasing the tickets, just not able to make that decision final. Finally, at the last moment, Cory decided to take the decision out of my hands and he declared that he was coming with me. It made for a much nicer trip. We left Tuesday after I got off of work and drove partway that night, crossing the ferry the following evening. The kids travelled fantastically, if you can ignore the vomiting - Alex on the way down, Connor on the way home.

Making "ferry faces". Gotta love being out in the fresh ocean air.

Remind me again why I stay in Northern BC?

So we ended up having a tiny holiday, spending Thursday with family saying our good-byes to my Grandmother, and Friday enjoying being tourists in Victoria. Dad showed us his old stomping grounds, and we had a fantastic family fun day on Friday (ocean, petting zoo, ice cream, Ye Olde Spaghetti Factory and then the boy going to Toy Story 3 with Cory, Uncle Nathan, and my Dad, while Kirstin and I shopped with my Mom).
The service was nice enough, but surprisingly poorly attended, which is sad. Back in the day, Grandma had lots of friends and family around. Nowadays, I suppose she may have outlived many of them. There was 48 people there in total, mostly family.

(Please forgive the poor quality of the photo, I took pictures of the photos on display at the service)
1978 - a photo with the grandchildren... before our family got really, really big. Now we number eighteen and we have 19 great-grandchildren amongst us. I'm the blonde one in the yellow dress having a tantrum in Grandma's arms.

My grandparents, Jim and Cynthia Martin. I'm not sure when this one was taken, but Grandpa passed away in '86 when I was 10, so I'm guessing sometime in the 70's, as well. I remember this one being on the wall at Grandma's always.


Rest in peace, Grandma. You've gone on to join your beloved husband and three of your children, Madeline, Baby Ronnie, and Aunty Anita. May your reunion be sweet.