On March 27, 2025 after a 15-year affliction of Parkinson’s Disease and Parkinson’s Dementia, Maureen Martin succumbed and her little body could take no more. Born on July 17, 1950 Maureen was the bravest person I know and always spoke her mind. She was honest and perceptive, funny and pretty. She loved clothes, the beach, chocolate and had good taste. But most of all she loved people and was interested in the story of whomever she was with, and would remember them and feel for them, like an empath. Well, she was that, for sure. One thing about Parkinson’s Dementia is that she didn’t forget who people were and even in her late stages she could hear the voices of her old friends on the phone and know who it was and could pick up the conversation right where it left off last time they were together. Her executive function was much more affected, and she was not able to care for herself at all for the last seven or eight years of her life. Maureen was blessed with three daughters who adored her and brought her nine grandchildren. Her whole adult life Maureen waited for these grandchildren and looked forward to spoiling them and babysitting them, and she did get maybe 10 years of that with her first five grandchildren before she was no longer able to care for them alone. But I hope they know that she loved them all and will be in heaven looking for her time with you, though it will be many years from now.

She loved being a nurse. She was proud, rightfully so, of having become an RN and holding a BSN. She worked for about 10 years at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco at 9 ICU working with very ill people. Not the staff, the patients. She connected with her patients and they knew that their nurse cared for them, knew something about them and prayed with and/or for them. She wasn’t just looking at the chart and the orders, though of course she was doing that, but she was also learning about them and their families and brought home lots of stories about them. All without violating HIPPA, I might add. After the 10 years of that she moved to a position of school nurse at the Marin County Office of Education, where she brought her compassion and personal touch to schools and children and where she made life-long friends with the other school nurses. She was just like that: everywhere she went, she made friends and once you were her friend, you were a friend forever.

Her faith was what held her up through everything. A devout Christian, Maureen never blamed God or railed against him for the terrible disease he allowed her to have; she never lost hope in the life to come. When she was still able she volunteered at the Rotocare Clinic in San Rafael for more than 10 years, and she went on several trips to Guatemala with Hospital de la Familia surgical teams and provided post-op care. The last trip she took was the year she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and she realized on that trip that she was not able to go anymore because of her increasing tremors and the beginnings of confusion. She made several attempts to learn Spanish in Guatemalan Spanish schools, but never really got past “Hola!” because her short-term memory was failing and even with repeated tries, it just wouldn’t stick. But even through the language barrier her compassion and personality got through, and she connected with her patients as if they had been friends forever. It turns out you can say a lot through “Hola!”

But back to her faith. She believed that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again in a physical body after three days. She lived her life with a desire to be a vessel for the Holy Spirit to reach people with his love. She is at peace now, happy, whole and complete. Her body is restored to health and she is no longer confused, and she can speak above a whisper again, which means her beautiful voice will be heard in heaven.

When Maureen was 18 she had a daughter, Camela in 1969. In 1974 she met John who would become her husband and Camela’s father. Together, they had two more daughters, Meghan and Emily. Camela’s daughters are Ella and Dixie, Meghan’s children are Colton, Skylar, RaleighJames, and Lincoln, and Emily’s daughters are Sloane, Palmer and Dylan. Camela lives in Folsom, CA and is married to Jim Matteoni, Meghan lives in Tennessee and is married to Matthew Urban, and Emily also lives in Tennessee and is married to Carl Wilson. Besides her biological daughters Maureen was a second mother to a number of other children who are of course all adults now. Her loss is painful to many, though it was also painful to see her decline from a vibrant, active, charismatic and incredible sweet person into an invalid. We will all miss her, but would not want her to have to continue as she was in these last years. Thanks be to God for a wonderful life lived and the gift to us that was Maureen Martin. 

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