Martha Bouchard
Martha Bouchard was a newlywed when she and her husband, Bob, hosted their first Thanksgiving in a home they recently purchased. On November 30, 1977, her husband left on a ten-day trip on the scalloper the Navigator. The ship and 13 crew members were lost at sea. She was six weeks pregnant. She went on to raise her son as a single parent.
“I was only married for two months. I was six weeks pregnant when the boat went down. But we did live together for two years. Ah, but it’s what you do with the time. You know, you pack a lot of stuff into one moment?”
“I was six weeks pregnant when that boat went down. But then, two months later, was the memorial service and they were getting ready to put up the plaque. I was like, Okay, now it’s real. The Coast Guard has stopped looking. They’ve issued a report. The lawyers have come into play. And I got this pregnancy to get through.”
“But I never really said ‘Oh poor me.’ There were times like close to anniversary times and birthday times. I’m just like, Okay, you kind of get the blues so to speak. But then we’ll come back to remembering the good times.”
“My ultimate purpose in life has been to be a teacher. I do believe that because everything that I’ve done has been teaching moments, whether it’s been parenthood, or family, or school, or Bible study. It’s been teaching, sharing moments.”
“My son wanted to go to Boy Scout overnight. And that was when it was called Father and Son overnight. And I said, you know, the Scouts should rent a dad so that he could go when he can work on his Scouting advancement badges. ‘Well, we don’t know what to tell you.’ ‘What do you mean you don’t know what to tell me? There are enough men in this group to take this young man and help him get his first class.’ I said ‘No, if you don’t we’ll find a way to do it.’ That’s when I became a Webelos leader. So I was one of two first woman of color Webelos leader and the only two of us to go and do overnights so that boys could cross over go to Boy Scouts work on their first class.”
“My parents were born and raised outside Macon, Georgia. So, I would spend every summer there with the family because my grandmother’s birthday was the fourth of July. When I was about four or five, my grandfather had taken us to town. We weren’t allowed to go to the restrooms, or to the fountains. But I’m a naïve little girl of four or five and I was thirsty. I went to take a drink from the fountains. The colored one was not working. No water coming out of that one. I said ‘Well, I’ll go to the next one.’ and I got grabbed. He’s like ‘What are you doing? You don’t do that!’ I was like ‘Why not? It’s water.’ Well, knowing that I didn’t know I was putting myself in harm’s way I just wanted a drink. My cousin was like ‘Okay, let’s go. But did you see that guy?’ I said, ‘No. I just wanted a drink.'”
Kool Letters: Bob wrote extensively to his wife Martha while away at sea, utilizing any medium he could find including Kool cigarette cartons. The following are two excerpts:
“I had a pet moth for a while. It flew onto the boat and landed on my shirt while I was hanging up my clothes to dry. It just stopped there as if it was enjoying itself so I did nothing to get rid of it. It felt good to know I had someone who loved me on the boat — even if it was only a moth. He made me think of you the whole time he was on me.”
“While I was doing my macramé a cute little canary about 3″ long flew onto the rail and jump on my pile of strings. This yellow and black canary then looked at me as if to say ‘What are you doing?’ I looked over at him and smiled then he jump over on my left hand side and looked again as if to say ‘Hello.’ So I replied to him ‘Hello little canary — How are you?’ Then he stayed and watched for a while and went on to survey the rest of the boat.”
Read the full transcript: Kool Letters Transcript
