Ms. Martell’s Curriculum Vitae
1) Born in rural Missouri, head first almost arriving before the doctor.
2) My birth year saw a “Purple Haze” of the Hendrix’s kind; Oscar was “A Man for All
Seasons;” and PBS was born.
3) My father walked high on steel beams across the Gateway to the West.
4) We moved East to The Bay State, the place of my father’s childhood.
5) We returned to the State of Misery
6) My 5th birthday party, my kindergarten class mates were invited but no one came.
7) Sundays were filled with sounds of an arm-chair football coach for Cardinals and
their giants, Dierdorf and Hart. but the Steelers of Pittsburgh with Bradshaw and Swan were supreme.
8) After 2nd grade, another house, a new school, no friends
9) 4th Grade saw the arrival of the Fat Fairy and Mr. Alcorn that made a little girl
who loved school, hate school.
9) After 4th Grade, moved to the house of my inheritance. New school … now
parochial not public. Superficial friendships.
10) My father often slept at the kitchen table or on the back porch in his lawn chair induced
by the intake of Budweiser. There were arguments...threats to leave.
11) We traveled to Iran, “to where???” many said….to return 6 months later because of
a revolution, Islam, and Khomeini to questions of “where did you go?” “Iran” “Oh,
my, there????”
12) 8th grade came with the Big C….Cancer that is. Innocence is ripped away, a little
girl skips being a teenager and is forced into adulthood.
13) Her body becomes the canvas for insurance paid tattoos. The burn of 3300 RADs
of radiation a day, 5 days a week 4 weeks long. The stares, mostly from adults.
The smells, the burn, the ice, the vomit….all chemo, 2 times a month for 6 months. NO PIZZA! How will a 13 year old live!
14) 1985, She knew Stacy’s mom but not the one that they sang about. College, away
from home, to the land of Sycamore Trees. Anti-sorority socority girl…..sisters
were made for life.
15) 1991, first year of teaching….not much older than her students. She learned from
them more than they probably learned from her. 24 years later, they are some of
her true and best friends.
16) 1997, she married at 30 to a man and his son. 1998, she adopted her oldest son.
1999, she gave birth to her son, a toddler size blessing.
17) 2001, 9-11 A marriage starts to be enveloped in mental illness, verbal and
emotional abuse, the strength of the girl that became a woman was slowly
dismantled. 2007, The Big C comes again.
18) 2008, her world was rocked to the core with the KIA of a former student and the
daddy’s girl lost her daddy on this earth to her Father in Heaven… 2 guardian
angels she knows they were made..
19) 2012, the marriage implodes...she realizes that she is dead to herself, her family, her
friends, her students. She says it is time to bury the marriage and heal.
20) November 2012, her Destiny becomes her Forever 16 Guardian Angel...her heart is
broken, her son’s heart is broken, it was so dark, so desolate, there was no light.
21) May 20, 2013, an F5 Tornado destroys Moore, Oklahoma. She was led by a group of
veterans and responded to aid a community that she had no ties to. In the wreckage, the destruction, the death, there was glimpses of beauty...it was a spiritual and humbling experience that would mark her
22) Her career is changing, not the students but the structure...becoming an industry
expecting cogs to to fit into a tight system. Things she fought to get out of the
system have returned. She continues to fight the system as a teacher that does
what is best for students and not what looks pretty on a chart or graph.
23) Her world continues to spiral until one day, she saw light…..faint light….but the
little girl….that skipped her adolescence….the woman she was slowly emerged…
24) She had set a date to go onto the next phase of her life, July 2020…if the system
allows her to be there that long.
25) She becomes one with her childhood home. A home that was started in 1873. She
knows the brick and mortar, she talks to it as if it was human. To her it is because there are the writings of her father on the walls.
26) Today, the light is bright. She is perfectly imperfect.
