South Texas Living Magazine (1) Dec. 2014 | Page 5

A City’s Grandmother
I have had the good fortune, all of my life, to know Mrs.
Martha Mae Thompson. She is my departed mother’s younger
sister and I know her as my ‘Aunt Martha Mae.’ Age and
wisdom have emboldened me to call her, simply, (my - & don’t
you forget it!) “Martha.” However, Kingsville knows her as
“Granny.” Ah... you are thinking... I know her! Of course you
do, because Love, Kindness, and Compassion have a unique
and unforgettable radiance, and if you are anywhere near their
gentle gravitational pull, you have met her... in Whataburger,
HEB, Wal-Mart, Harrel’s, the King Ranch Store, ON the King
Ranch, in her Church, in... She is everywhere! “Granny” is
one of those people in whose company you immediately feel
‘seen,’ safe, comfortable, and ‘home,’ so she has never met a
‘stranger’ and you never feel like one.
Although I was born in Dallas, I grew up on the East Coast.
I am not a stranger to Texas, but I AM a recent transplant
and now live in Houston. I was visiting my Aunt Martha in
early October this year and, the night I arrived, accompanied
her to church; she had an evening committee meeting. Aunt
Martha Mae was uncomfortable and agitated about possible

contracting procedural anomalies and did not want the
situation to continue moving forward because of the potentially
negative impact on her church and its parishioners. I asked
her what she was going to do about her frustrations and she
indicated that she would remain silent as, “I am not a leader.”
Her eldest son, Butch – my cousin, will tell you that I am NOT
one to keep silent, so I encouraged her to follow her heart,
her instincts, and speak up ‘in service to...’ I told Martha that
I enjoyed writing poetry, so would wait for her in the Church
lobby and try to write something while she was in the meeting.
Glass windows separated us, so she knew that if she looked
at me, she would see me demonstrably encouraging her to
speak up OR making monkey faces so that she would get in
‘trouble’ for disruptive behavior... ha! At any rate, I did not
act out and get her into trouble but I DID write a poem... for
Martha. You are reading it below as written that evening while
she was in the meeting, with perhaps a word or two of editing.
Unless you believe Butch’s version, and then it’s an edit of
about 800 words...

For Martha
Now and again,
we ask ourselves
(usually feeling some guilt, futility, and anger)
“Why do I bother?”
You know, Jesus did not accept ‘King’
any more than you accept ‘Leader.’
And yet he raged in the holy Temple
against the unethical money lenders.
This was ‘righteous anger’
demanating from authentic Being and Truth.
And you are asked to remember this:
Permission and anointing are not required
for genuine Self-expression
that leads grown men
back to righteousness.
It is not necessarily the ‘Leaders’
we remember, who change our lives -Greatness lies (quietly) in honoring
the sanctity of One’s Being -Through authentic actions –
As you will do tonight!
Blessings be, Martha, for you are one of God’s own.

Mrs. Martha Mae Thompson
As it happily turns out, “Granny” did speak her heart and
mind at the meeting that night. The committee members not
only listened, they agreed! Procedures were unanimously put
back on track and well, yes, ‘they all lived happily ever after.’
But this was no fairy tale, was it?
If you have not had the good fortune to meet “Granny,”
my Aunt Martha, just show up at the 14th Street Whataburger
during ‘retiree’ breakfast hours. She’ll be there, her mouth
open in anticipation of the first inimitable bite of her

personalized ‘toasted’ biscuit (or to ‘jabber-jaw’ – don’t ask
me; it’s a Kingsville ‘thang’), and her arms open waiting for
YOU...
Aunt Martha... Granny... in this Christmas season of new
birth, we are grateful for your life, for the renewal you so
unhesitatingly and lovingly provide to ours.

Blessings to all... in the Light, with Peace and Love,
Susan Hall-West
South Texas Living – “The Good Life” (5)