Obituary of Penelope Ann Martin

Penelope Ann Martin (Secord) February 2, 1941

Penny was born on the Isle of Bute in Scotland but shortly thereafter, her mother was widowed when her father’s ship was torpedoed. Four years later she married a Captain of the Royal Engineers and moved to Canada. Penny thought the man, James E. Secord, who went on to become a noted architect, walked on water. Her mother on the other hand was always distant.

Everyone knew Penny by her laugh. It was a genuine, room-filling belly laugh that made her friends, who were legion, laugh out loud with her, often with tears and snorts and other unseemly side-effects of pure guttural joy in full evidence. And that just made Penny laugh all the harder. “We’re making memories,” she was fond of saying. And she did, for so many people.

Penny met the love of her life, Robert Martin, at a singles bar in Niagara Falls, New York in 1977. Not that she was much of a drinker. She always preferred weed. But she tagged along with a friend to keep her company. Bob, more than anyone, could make Penny laugh. He could also make her yell. And curse. But their disagreements never lasted long.

In 1981 Penny fulfilled a long family tradition, by giving birth at the age of 40. Adam grew up much loved and totally spoiled. Penny tried not to curse around the child but quickly realized it was a losing battle. So, she simply told him that some words were only to be used at home, and if he effed up and used one at school, she would not have his back.

Bob and Penny bought their cottage on Anstruther Lake in the Kawarthas when Penny was still complaining about lower back pain and the other horrors of pregnancy while expecting Adam. They entertained friends and family at the Love Inn for more than 40 years, a tradition that Adam and Erin continue today with Penny’s grandchildren Spencer and Evie, whom she spoiled even more than she did Adam. Penny never failed to entertain at the cottage, intentionally or not. Once she hit an ice patch on her snowmobile, lost control and rolled all the way down—a hill that was forevermore known as Penny’s Hill.

Penny was Martha Stewart decades before Martha Stewart was Martha Stewart. In 1970, she opened her own store in downtown St. Catharines. Penelope’s was a class act, like its namesake, selling art and kitschy home décor long before kitsch was cool and when most people were just slinging homemade macrame on the wall and calling it art. (That macrame made a recent comeback pained Penny, literally.) Penny was also an artist herself, creating beautiful stained glass pieces in her basement studio before arthritis ended her futzing with solder and all those sharp edges. Penny’s sense of style and humour were always in full evidence in her home, where a life-sized mannikin named Audrey, always dressed for the season, still greets visitors in the hallway.

Flowers were Penny’s great passion and she was a master gardener and landscaper. Her backyard oasis was not just the envy of the green thumbs of St. Catharines—it was as gorgeous as any Canadian garden published in any magazine, anywhere, ever.

Writing came as naturally as breathing to Penny. She regaled friends and family with fabulous letters and cards over the years, most of them detailing some funny story or other, from her time

living in Australia in the mid 1970s to the little hilarities of daily life to cottage misadventures. She put her natural writing talent to daily use when she and Bob opened Martin Engineering in 1986. There, Penny corrected everyone’s grammar, and as a thank you, Bob never once took her out for lunch. Clients yes, all the time, but Penny, never.

Penny is also survived by her first son, John, whom she was forced to have out of wedlock and in secret, giving him up for adoption back in her mother’s hometown of Chatham, Kent in England in 1962. John and Penny were happily reunited 10 years ago. Penny was thrilled then to also inherit daughter-in-law Diana and grandchildren Lucy, Oliver and Harry. Penny leaves behind her sister Pam (Dave), brother Peter (Joanne) and too many dear friends, cousins, nieces and nephews to name in Canada and England, none of whom can really believe that we will never hear her laughter again.

Cremation has taken place. A celebration of Penny's life will be held at a future date.