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Folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
On Tuesday,
Claudia Barber-Martin of Detroit was having a treatment to
battle the breast cancer with which she was diagnosed last October.
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, she was boarding a plane to Seattle. Her visit
to Port Orchard for
Cedar Cove Days, a celebration of South Kitsap author Debbie Macomber, had been
arranged in secret by her 22-year-old son, Adam Martin of
Chicago.
Martin had scrimped and saved from his job at Hot Topic to buy
the discount plane ticket and sign his mother up for a couple of
reserved Cedar Cove events, including a cruise with Macomber. There
was only one thing he was unable to secure, lodging.
He tried, even contacting the Cedar Cove Association for help,
but nothing firm surfaced.
“I wanted everything to be very special for her, because she is
very special to me,” Martin wrote in an e-mail to the
association.
If anyone deserved this trip, it was his Mom, Martin said.
Barber-Martin, who works as a hockey scorekeeper, is also an avid
volunteer with scouting groups and at a Detroit Veteran’s hospital.
She has been honored for her work by the City of Detroit. She
raised Martin and his sister as a single mother and even put them
through private Catholic school.
Claudia Barber-Martin
Martin – whom his mother describes as “a sweetheart,”
6-foot-four, with strawberry blond hair to his waist – sprung the
surprise on her while the two of them were celebrating her 51st
birthday at a restaurant in Chicago Tuesday night. Barber Martin
was undeterred by the lack of a roof over her head.
“I said, OK. I’ll figure something out,” she said.
I ran into Barber-Martin in Port Orchard on the first day of the
Cedar Cove Days festival. She had the name of a possible lead on a
room, but was having too much fun in Macomber’s yarn shop to call
just then.
That evening, I threw a post up on the blog, saying she needed a
place to stay. I had given her my cell number and invited her to
call if she got in a pinch. When I didn’t hear from her, I figured
she was OK, but still, I wondered. So did many other people. On the
blog and by e-mail, I heard from nearly a dozen folks either
inquiring after Barber-Martin’s welfare or offering a room in their
homes. One woman offered a fully furnished travel trailer.
But by 9 p.m. Wednesday, Barber-Martin had indeed found a place
to lay her (by then) weary (and jet-lagged) head. A family with an
upstairs apartment had offered it to her for a fee Barber-Martin
described as “very reasonable.”
And she is happy to pay it. You see the husband of the family –
who picked Barber-Martin up in their van after the children’s
soccer practice – is a contractor. Things have been tough with the
recession and all, and they are behind on payments and in danger of
losing their home.
“I was very pleased,” said Barber-Martin. “You have to give
back. Someone gave to me, and so now, I’m giving back.”
The apartment is lovely, she said, and she awoke refreshed and
ready to take in more of Cedar Cove. At the opening ceremony today,
Jerry Childs of the Cedar Cove Association, inquired after her from
the stage to see if she’d been taken care of.
“I’ve become a little kind of celebrity,” she said.
Barber-Martin has become fast friends with other Cedar Cove
visitors.
“It’s been so much fun. Everyone is like one big family,” she
said.
Oh, yes, and then, as if things couldn’t have gotten better, she
and her buddies ran into Debbie Macomber herself at Port Orchard’s
waterfront park, and Debbie shared her lunch with them.
“It’s been a great time,” she said. “It’s amazing. Everyone has
their own story.”
But, none quite like yours, Dear.
Debbie, are you taking notes?
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