Re: Obit: Martens, Helen Mary (1921 - 2006)

Contact: Carlyne McCrory
Email:  carlynemccrory@sympatico.ca

I know I am more than a year late in sending this message - but just the same....

I offer my most sincere condolences. Helen Martens is on my list of people whom I most admired in my life. I was a chorist in the Inter-Mennonite Children's Choir from 1978-1981... among the priveleged to enjoy her last year with the choir (and OUR toughest).

I was in the gang that made the CBC recording ... a wonderful trip to Pennsylvania ... and of course - a life-changing 8 country tour in Europe.

Helen Martens was tough as nails and never gave us an inch. It was with the strictest of discipline that we learned to memorize countless songs and maintain perfect posture in many a gruelling situation. Her smile was shared rarely with us throughout the season ... but was worth gold when it bloomed as she raised a hand to silence our voices at the end of a concert. If she smiled we had received her ultimate praise - if she didn't we knew that we would pay the price in our upcoming practices before being allowed to perform again.

Please know that I am surely not the only one of the gang who secretly adored Helen Martens ... I only wish I could have known and learned more from her when I was more mature and needed all the wisdom, strength and knowledge she had to offer. Helen Martens affected my life in a most positive way and perhaps some of the strength that I possess today is because I had the privelege of knowing her.

Thank you - her memory lives on in many places that you will never know.

Carlyne McCrory