Martha Bagans-Black

Black, Martha Jo (Nee Bagans), age 63 of Grosse Ile, passed away on July 29th, 2016 with family at her bedside. Loving mother of Aaron, Lisa(Dave) Curtis, and Danny(Genette). Proud grandmother of adoring grandchildren Gaaron, Greyson, and Ellie. Dearest sister of Larry(Mary Jo) and Marlene(Bill) Fisher. Martha was a beloved aunt of Meredith, Zachary, Sarah, and Emily, and great aunt of Morgan and Maddox. Martha was born on December 18, 1952 to Clarence and Grace Bagans. She attended Sacred Heart grade school and Grosse Ile High School. She was employed by Henry Ford Hospital. Martha was loved by all who knew her. She will be missed more than words can say. Visitation will be Thursday from 2-9pm at the Trenton Chapel of The Martenson Family of Funeral Homes, a scripture service will be held at 7pm. A funeral mass will be held Friday, in state 10am with mass at 1030am, at St. Cyprians Catholic Church. A private burial will follow. Memorial contributions in Martha's honor can be made directly to the Black family. Click on the multimedia tab to view Martha's video tribute. Good evening, I am Bill Fisher. I was Martha's brother-in-law and friend for the past 23 years. Tonight we are here to celebrate a special life and share our great memories of Martha. When I think of Martha, I think about her deep love of family. I reflect on her many family roles – Mother, Grandma, Sister, Aunt, Cousin, and Daughter. She was so great at all those roles. The first word that Danny, Lisa and Aaron use to describe their Mom is selfless. Martha's kids always knew they were Number 1, and that Martha would do whatever was needed to make things work out and to love and support her family. Martha was always so calm, easy going, and fun. Martha never raised her voice with Danny, Lisa and Aaron – she didn't need to. Of course, the kids were so well behaved. But if the kids were doing something wrong, Martha would famously purse her lips, or as the kids would describe it – "Mom would get her pointy lips and look in our direction, and, we immediately knew that she was not happy". Danny, Lisa and Aaron respected their Mom so much – they were a special team and a beautiful family. And then there was the fun Martha. Martha loved to dance. Every day, when the kids were young, Martha would come home from work, crank up the music and dance in front of the full length "dancing mirror" - and just have fun with the kids. Martha instilled a deep sense of optimism, fun and love in her kids. I too can remember so many fun dances with Martha. But Lisa, my absolute favorite was, you, me and your Mom dancing at 2 o'clock in the morning at the nightclub at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. It was the coolest club in Vegas at the time, and Zak got us to the front of the long waiting line and then right in the door. I vividly remember the loud, pulsating music, red lights flashing all around us, a huge dance floor jammed with stylish hipsters, and us three right in the middle of it all. We had so much fun that night! Martha was also a very proud Grandma to Ellie, Greyson, and Gaaron. Martha had a lot of fun nicknames that we all enjoyed, but none better than the name given her by Gaaron - Grandma Atta. We all loved that name for Martha and it took on so many fun variations – Atta, Atts, and so on. Martha would attend every event possible to love on her Grandkids. And even close to the end of Martha's 15 year battle with cancer, she got on a plane and travelled to Disney World in Florida to vacation and spend precious time with Grandkids. When Genette asked Ellie, just 2 years old, what her favorite thing about Grandma Atta was, she replied, "Grandma Atta go on airplane with me". What special memories were made. Like her Mom, Grace, Martha just had that special touch with children. I saw that same special touch from Aunt Martha with my kids, Sarah and Emily. They called Aunt Martha, Auntie. Through the years Aunt Martha would never miss an event...whether it was a gymnastics meet, a horse show, a 1st Communion, Confirmation, graduations, the list goes on and on. Auntie made them feel so special and she was so special to them. Though, no one can tell you about Martha any better than Martha's Grandson, Greyson, who is 5 years old. When Genette asked Greyson what his most favorite thing about Grandma Atta was, Greyson said "she loved me". Martha was a loving and beautiful sister to Marlene and Larry. Just two weeks ago, we were all up in Traverse City to celebrate Marlene and Larry's birthdays, as well as two of Martha's niece's birthdays, Morgan and Sarah. Martha was in tremendous pain and very frail. She surely should not have made that travel, but no one and no illness was going to keep Martha from attending a family event. No one celebrates family birthdays quite like the Bagans do and it was so special that we had a chance to celebrate all together one last time. It was even more special this time because Larry's daughter Meredith and her family were there from Las Vegas. Lisa, thank you for the special care you gave your Mom on that trip and throughout her battle with cancer. For many years, Marlene and Martha would travel to Las Vegas to meet up with Larry and his family. Of course, Marlene and Martha would also find some time to slip away to the slot machines or the $5 blackjack table. Their tradition was the first one up would slip a note under the adjoining hotel room door trying to not wake anyone else. They would plan a time to slip out and head down to the casino. This was usually around 5:00 a.m. – this time became known as "special sister time". Often, Lisa and I would join Marlene and Martha at the blackjack table at a more reasonable hour of the morning. We would all drink coffee and talk and laugh so much when we played blackjack together. In the same way, we all would play dominoes or sit around the camp fire on East Tawas family vacations – lots of talking and laughing. We all would always look up and realize that somehow 3 or 4 hours had just gone by – we had so much fun together – it was so easy and comfortable to be together. As kids, Marlene, Martha and Larry were a part of a close knit Gorno family that got together every week. They especially enjoyed their summer Sundays on Fox Island. I have had the pleasure over the last 25 years of listening to Larry and Marlene gently tease their sister. Martha also had "wild child", independent, and adventurous sides to her. When Martha was a teenager, she would turn up her music and light up incense in her room and tell everyone to go away because she was having an experience. Believe me, I have heard that story more than 100 times – it must be true. Martha was also independent - Marlene and Larry were always trying to pry information out of Martha. They loved saying that Martha was "tight lipped" about everything. Martha loved adventure - Every time, we went to Las Vegas together, Martha would say to me that we should also go whitewater rafting down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon while we were already out West. Though my favorite example of independence and adventure is that Martha had a hair dresser that she liked on Mackinac Island, and one mid October day we asked her what she did that day. She said "I went to Mackinac Island to get my hair done. When I got there the weather was so bad we almost didn't make it across on the boat. But my hair looks great!" She would hop in her car and road trip on her own to Mackinac Island and drive back in the same day. Now that is someone who likes an adventure! What a great and fun life! And let's also remember that her sweet personality has been with her for her entire life. I have heard many, many times from Marlene and Larry that Martha was always the favorite - that Martha was CB's favorite. I continue to play it safe and not take a position on whether Martha was the favorite. I can tell you that Martha was always the sweetest, the most gracious, the most loving person at whatever the family event. Martha was just like her Mom, Grace. The family asked me to conclude with this verse which so aptly describes our feelings. What moves through us is a silence, a quiet sadness, a longing for one more day, one more word, one more touch. We may not understand why you left this earth so soon, or why you left before we were ready to say good-bye, but little by little, we begin to remember not just that you died, but that you lived. And that your life gave us so many memories too beautiful to forget On behalf of the family, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for celebrating Martha's beautiful life with us. God bless.