Martha passed away on Wednesday at 5:40 pm at her home in Hemet. She died from heart and lung failure at age 83. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Martha served in the Army Nurse Corps during WWII and was stationed in England and France. She was a lifetime member of the VFW and also a member of the American Legion.

She received her RN at St. Louis City Hospital in 1937. She later obtained her BSN and Masters Degrees from St. Louis University in 1951 and 1964. Much of her career was spent in Public Health Nursing, first in St. Louis and as a Visiting Nurse both in St. Louis and in Santa Cruz, Calif. She spent some time with Infant Welfare in Chicago and was the Nurse for several years in the Indian Service in Oregon. Later, moving to Calif., she worked with the Migrant Workers while living in Bakersfield. The last ten years of her Nursing Career were spent as a Professor teaching psychiatric nursing at Riverside Community College in Riverside.

Martha moved to Hemet in 1968 with her father where they settled in Sierra Dawn South. Her father passed away 5 years later. An only child she has no surviving relatives. Angela Savoie, RN, Martha's life companion, is also Martha's adopted daughter. They shared the same home for 23 years. In Sierra Dawn Martha belonged to the Women's Club, and she loved to play pinochle until recently. She was a long-time member of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church in Hemet.

Martha served on the first Hemet Hospice Board for six years and has continued to work as a volunteer ever since. She had a great love for Hospice and her wish is that any donations in her memory be made to Hemet Hospice or Ramona Animal Shelter in San Jacinto. Martha was recently awarded and given the 1997 "Heart of Hospice Award".

It has been nearly 24 years since I first met Martha. Very quickly Martha became my personal mentor. There were many things about her that I liked. She was brassy, forthright, no-nonsense, intelligent, sincere, and a real character.

It wasn't long after we met that we developed a close bond. We spent a great deal of time together in the early years of our relationship. And ours was no ordinary relationship. In Dignity circles we became known as the Harold and Maude of Dignity. I made frequent visits to her "trailer" in Hemet to seek her advice and wisdom.

She was my guiding light, someone who kept challenging me to do things I had never done before. She taught me the value of speaking your mind and never backing down from a challenge.

One of my most memorable memories of Martha was the time we spent two weeks together (just her and me) traveling all over New England and capping off our trip at the Dignity National Convention in Boston back in 1975.

I cannot think of Martha without also thinking of Angela. They were nearly inseparable. I should know - I first introduced them to one another over a fruit salad at a Dignity Brunch in La Jolla. Martha saw what she wanted and then proceeded to have Angie go after her. What a love affair!

A special Dignity Memorial Service for Martha is being planned for a later date. Martha, I will always love you. Pat.

It was the second Sunday of Easter and the evening air was fresh and cool. Seventy people attended the special Dignity Mass that evening to pay final tribute to one of our dearest and most ardent supporters, Martha Lois Beltz. Martha was a true pioneer in Dignity and a stalwart defender of all that we stand for. It was my privilege and an honor for me to deliver the eulogy at this very special Mass.

Among the seventy people in attendance were Judy Carton, one of our chapter's former presidents; Heather Chisholm-Chait, former Regional Administrator; and Bert Popeney, a close friend of Angela (Martha's life partner). Also attending were members of the House of Faith Church in Hemet where Martha lived (10 in all made the trek from Hemet). In addition to the special Dignity tribute, Martha also received, in March, a beautiful military service with full honors at the Riverside National Cemetery.

Martha was one of my dearest of friends and one of my most valued of mentors in Dignity.  In some respects, and many of you have heard this before, Martha & I were like Harold & Maude.  In the movie, Harold & Maude shared many hours together discussing life with all its ramifications.  They were not only good friends they were intimate friends.  Theirs was a unique relationship.  This was also the case with Martha & me.

There is a particular story that brings back many fond memories of my relationship with Martha.  For those of you who have not heard that story, I would ask those of you who have, to bear with me for a moment.  It was back in August of 1975.  Martha & I flew to Boston to attend the second biennial Dignity Convention.  We arrived a week early so we could tour New England prior to joining our Dignity family at the convention.  During the course of our travels we ended up at a place called the Griswold Inn on the Connecticut River, built in 1776.  It was evening, we were hungry and we needed a place to stay.  When we entered the establishment we both noticed that there was a dining room.  At the front counter I inquired as to the availability of a room for the evening.  I was politely told that the Inn was fully booked with the exception of the bridal suite.  Discouraged but still hungry, we sat down to a delicious dinner.  During dinner we decided to take the suite for the evening and I so informed the desk clerk.  After all it was the only room in the Inn with its own private bath.  I think we must have been the talk of the Inn that night.

An extremely resourceful woman, the Martha I knew was a woman with years of accumulated life's experiences.  When we first met, she was 60 and I was 27.

The Martha I knew was a woman of tremendous wisdom, the kind of wisdom that only comes from years of searching, learning, and listening.

In addition to all of her career activities, outlined in the Memorial Program, Martha was a deeply loving and spiritual woman.  She financially supported two seminarians in their studies in India. Martha was an activist, a caregiver, and a volunteer. She served the poor and homeless at St. Anthony's kitchen in Oakland. Martha was a planner, an educator, and an organizer.  She earned the respect and admiration of many students at Riverside Community College.  Angie was one of her students.

Martha could be exasperating, impatient and demanding.  Hey, she was human after all.  She demanded excellence.  That was made very clear one day when she was visiting a Chicago restaurant for a meal.  As a public health nurse she took sanitation seriously.  When she noticed that the coffee cup on her table had a crack in it, she summoned the waitress to her table. She told her that the coffee cup was unsafe and was not to be used again, and promptly dropped it on the floor whereupon it broke into several pieces, thus making her point.  She had a flare for the dramatic at times.

Martha, like so many others before her, lived two separate lives. There was Martha the straight educated single woman, and there was "Denny" the gay, & loving woman living in a relationship with another woman.

Martha's sexual identity was never a mystery to her, but it was something she had to keep secret for all the obvious reasons.  Dignity was at first a haven where she could freely express her emotions and talk openly about being a lesbian.  Later Dignity became a forum for her where she could share her wealth of medical and psychiatric knowledge with the rest of us.

As many of you know, Martha was no wallflower. At all levels of Dignity, Martha quickly gained the reputation of speaking her mind and often times having the last word. Indeed she was a very forthright and outspoken woman.  On several occasions when she did have the last word - she had our undivided attention as well.  It was not uncommon for Martha to indicate her impatience with anyone who didn't get to the point by saying, "Yeah, Yeah, get on with it."

I believe it was May 19, 1974 when Martha & Angie first meant.  That meeting was no accident however.  I prearranged it.  Martha had set her sights on this former Catholic nun and the occasion for their first meeting was at a Dignity Sunday Brunch at Skipper's in La Jolla.  I made sure that Angie would be there.  And it was over a fruit salad that their relationship began and continued right up to Martha's death.

On November 9, 1974 (nearly 60 years to the day since Martha's birth) Dignity/San Diego celebrated its first Mass at the Catholic Cardijn Center in Old Town.  Fr. Bernie Cassidy, a Jesuit friend of Dignity was our presider that evening.   In a quiet moment during the evening Fr. Bernie blessed Martha & Angie's relationship, thus making this Dignity/San Diego's first Holy Union. Theirs was no ordinary courtship either.  But then, there was never anything ordinary about Martha.  Not only was it my privilege to play cupid to her and Angela, but I was their love-letter courier as well.  That is a story in itself.

In January 1975, Martha and Angie donated a beautiful earthenware chalice and paten to the chapter.  In Martha's memory we are using that chalice and paten tonight.

One of Martha's favorite sayings was:  "May you live as long as you want to, and may you want to as long as you live."

Martha was one of a kind.  She touched the lives of all of us gathered here tonight, whether you ever met her in person or not.  She touched us in so many ways, in what she said and what she wrote, and what she did over the years.

There was another saying that Martha had which is just as valid now as it was when she first uttered these words:

" I don't need the Catholic Church, but the Catholic Church sure does need me."   The Catholic Church did not choose Martha, but Martha did choose the Catholic Church.  It was by choice that Martha became a convert to Catholicism.  And of course we all know that the Catholic Church has never been the same since.  I can just hear her now in response to some ridiculous announcement from the Vatican:  "What a bunch of crap."

She was relentless in her defense of Dignity and the important role it has to play in the continuing development of our Catholic Church.

Our lives are richer for having known Martha.  I thank God for having know Martha and her effect on me and many of you will last a lifetime.

At our chapter's 25^th Anniversary Celebration Martha had the last word when she informed all of us that she would start a chapter of Dignity in heaven.

And to that I would say - St. Peter don't mess with our Martha.