Sunday, June 21, 1998

Martin family appreciates caring spirit of Abilene

By HALE MARTIN / Guest Columnist

I would like to write a sincere note of thanks to the city of Abilene and the surrounding communities, and this seems the best way to do it.

My parents, Edward H. and Elsie Lou Martin, recently were found dead near Abilene after having been missing for a week. It was a difficult week of searching but one in which we received much support and help from a caring community.

The Abilene Police Department was very competent in its search and handling of the situation. The Abilene Reporter-News and the television stations were very helpful in alerting the community to enhance the search. Friends of my parents were very supportive and caring.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to all of them for their efforts and their sensitivity.

Upon finding the bodies, the community opened its arms to my family and me. We received great kindness in the form of thoughts and prayers and encouragement. Windcrest Alzheimer's Care Center, where my mother lived the past few months, was very supportive, as were neighbors and friends in the community.

Lodging was provided for relatives who traveled to Abilene for the funeral; food was always arriving for us; workers in restaurants they frequented talked of them and shared tears with me.

I especially was touched by stories that friends of my parents told about their lives. It helped me keep in perspective the impact of their lives and how much they accomplished in helping others in their modest way.

After growing up in Abilene, I now live in a large city and have sadly seen there is little caring for others among the masses of citizens who rush to work, fight for parking spaces and ignore the plight of those around them. It was with some sense of awe that I saw the caring community of Abilene that I grew up with is still there, still caring. I hope it never changes.

The Memorial Fund for Elderly Care that was established in my parents' name through the Abilene Community Foundation has received many generous contributions honoring my parents and supporting the community they loved.

It seems an appropriate cause, given the many hours my mother spent, largely unnoticed, visiting with and caring for the elderly here in Abilene, and the weekly "day-off" my father spent, not playing golf, but making rounds in local nursing homes, mostly free of charge. They recognized that the elderly are a sector of our population woefully under-served.

My parents were wonderful people -- I could go on a long time about their virtues. They loved Abilene and the Big Country. My father grew up in Anson, and although training in medicine took him far away at times, he never lost his sense of home. He loved this area. I am comforted by knowing a caring community family nourished them over the years and also confident that they nourished that community in return. I know Abilene has lost two very devoted citizens, and my sisters and I have lost the best parents anyone could wish for.

But I have rekindled hope that the kind of love and caring they stood for will live on in the community of Abilene. I see that their legacy of unselfish caring, service and devotion is reflected in the community of the Big Country.

Thank you, Abilene, and please carry on with the caring spirit you shared with my parents.

Hale Martin lives in Littleton, Colorado.