MARTHA LOUISE GARIEPY
1953-2016
Martha Louise Gariepy died on Thursday, the 31st of March 2016, in Houston, at home with Zack Robert Blailock, M.D., her loving companion of the past eleven years at her side. She was born on the 11th of August 1953, in Lachine, Quebec, Canada. Her father, Pierre Gariepy, and mother, Joyce Simmons Gariepy still reside in Dorval, Canada, where Martha was raised. Her sister Suzanne currently resides in Ontario, Canada, and her brother Edward in Kelowna, British Columbia. In childhood she was found to have scoliosis of the spine and underwent implantation of a Harrington rod requiring she be in a full body cast for twelve months. It was the first of her health challenges and also was the first she conquered, beautifully. She was very bright, loved music and math, and earned high marks in school. But her father, with a well-intentioned traditional outlook of the time, felt strongly her place was best in secretarial school. Her mother’s contrary opinion prevailed however.
Martha earned a Piano Performance Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto in 1974, a Bachelor of Music degree in 1975 and a Master of Arts degree in 1976 also from The University of Toronto. From 1976 to 1979 she held a prestigious scholarship PhD candidacy in Early Music at the University of Vienna, Austria. Due to the sudden death of her sponsoring professor the scholarship program was discontinued and she had to return to Canada. In 1981 Martha earned the degree of Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario. She then worked in Investment Banking for Toronto Dominion Capital (U.S.A.) Inc. until her retirement as a Vice President in 2014. She loved working in San Francisco, where there had been a serious romance that was not to be. She hated being transferred to New York City but soon came to love it there as well. Then finally it was to Houston where she bought an actual house.
While in Vienna (Wein) Martha traveled Europe extensively, using Eurail passes and other student modes, often with student friends but sometimes alone. Travel became her lifelong passion, intensely and joyously pursued, and even after she had visited sixty-five countries it continued to be, with many repeat trips to the best and most warmly loved of all, Italy. She traveled with hiking groups, biking groups, art groups and safaris. Harrington Rod be damned. Her trips were successful for three reasons: First because of almost unbelievably thorough and detailed advance research and planning which she enjoyed almost as much as the trips themselves. Second because she spoke French, German and Italian fluently. But third and most importantly, because she was the most cheerful, kind, open, considerate, curious, enthusiastic and well informed traveling companion one could possibly imagine, with the brightest smile and bluest eyes you ever saw. Out of those trips came many special, loving, enduring memories and friendships with, well….you each know who you are.
In 2005, on a Fine Arts tour to Northern Italy she met Zack, who was recently widowed and had never been to Europe. Their love bloomed quickly, and in the following ten years they brought great happiness to each other, seeing the things and places she knew so well, her Austrian friends, making new friends in Italy. There were music festivals in Austria and Switzerland, a performance of Aida in the Roman amphitheater at Verona, and then the fractional ownership of a little Tuscan villa. In Houston his children and grandchildren loved her as much as he did.
Martha’s other health challenges over time were sarcoidosis and then a breast cancer in 2002 with severe chronic fatigue syndrome from the breast radiation treatment. From those she recovered fully and returned to the sky with even greater vigor, love of life, happiness and smiles. But in 2015 she met her match in a very resistant and aggressive endometrial cancer. To the end she was courageous and able to bring a smile to one’s weeping face.
Finally, there is this from her dear friend Silvia Forni: “Ciao bella! Un grande abbraccio da noi due,anche noi siamo con te in questo viaggio con lo spirito e con tutto il nostro amore e la nostra amicizia. Riposa in pace cara Martha. Un bacio, amica nostra.”