Susan Marston I Women's History Mon

Today, for the Women's History Month project, we are celebrating this fabulous woman

Meet Susan Marston, 77, wife, mother and grandmother of 4 beautiful grandchildren, happily retired..

Susan grew up in Saco on a dairy and vegetable farm off the Portland Road. She spent several years, along with her brother, Tom, helping their dad milk the cows before going to high school each morning. That meant getting up at 4:30 and then heading off to school.

Susan was educated in the Saco Schools, including Thornton Academy. She was the third generation to graduate from Thornton. Her children and now her grandchildren are the fourth and fifth generations to be part of Thornton Academy. While at Thornton, she met her future husband, Alan. After a 5 year courtship they were married in 1965 and have been together for almost 57 years. After high school she went to Gorham State Teachers College (now USM), to become a teacher. This had been a lifelong dream to teach elementary children. Her first teaching position was teaching third grade at West School in Portland. A year later, Alan and Susan moved to Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, so that Alan could pursue his Doctorate. Two years later, she entered the Master’s Program for Education at the University of Illinois. Susan received her degree two years later.

Susan worked for four years as a second grade teacher for gifted and talented students in Champaign, Illinois. Alan was offered a position of Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Clarion University in Clarion, Pennsylvania. While living in Clarion, Susan took a 13 year hiatus to raise two children, Jennifer and Eric. In 1983, Susan and Alan returned to Maine to be closer to family, especially grandparents. Susan missed her teaching career and got a fifth grade position in Waterboro for three years. As luck would have it, a job in Saco opened up for a third grade teacher. She spent the next 22 years teaching in the school she attended as a student. She feels blessed to have had such a wonderful teaching career with so many wonderful students, many of whom still stay in touch. She retired in 2008.

Susan feels she has led a storybook life, with a wonderful husband, Alan, and two accomplished and caring children, Jennifer and Eric. There have been very few life challenges along the way, until just recently, when Alan and Susan were involved in a terrible traffic accident on Labor Day of 2021. Both received many broken bones and Susan spent 13 days in Maine Medical Center recovering. She still goes to physical therapy to bring her arm back to normal. She has accepted the challenges of recovery and is feeling like her regular self.

Family is the thing that Susan values most in life. She had loving parents and grandparents that taught her the importance of high moral standards, kindness and love to others. She and her husband have tried to set these same values for their own children and they are proud to say that their children have listened well. Their children are outstanding parents and they are raising their own children with the same high ideals and love. They are so proud of the spouses their children chose, Nathan and Nancy and the amazing grandchildren they have brought into the world; Marston, Hope, Ella, and Will.

Susan is passionate about justice for everyone. She wants to see everyone treated fairly. When she thinks of joy, she thinks of their summer home at Little Sebago Lake. Her granddaughters call it their heaven and right they are. She and Alan and the entire family spend as much time as they can at their “heaven”. She also loves reading and going to her book club. She reads 25-30 books a year. She loves her gardens both in Saco and at Little Sebago Lake. For 20 years, Susan has conducted the Junior Choir at First Parish Congregational Church, another thing she is passionate about: music.

Susan tries to live each day as a gift and be grateful for all she has been given.

Here are a few more of Susan's favorite quotes:

"With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy."

- Lope de Vega

"Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh.

Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is."

Mary Anne Radmacher

*****

Thank you, Susan, for sharing your story with us!

#whm #womenshistorymonth #womanpower #womansupportingwomen #mainewoman #mainephotographer

3 Comments

Mar 18, 2022, 6:07:00 PM

Allia Ahmed - My beautiful sister in law and so proud of her and her achievements! So we'll deserving of this beautiful recognition!

Mar 15, 2022, 10:08:47 AM

Rev. Dr. Peter Stickney - The Lovely Mrs. Marston IS the golden standard. She lives what she values and blesses us with light and LOVE. I am grateful for the radiant light that she bequeaths everyone in her presence *and has blessed my son and I with -(You can see it in her eyes - captured by the camera)- Thank you for sharing the farmer's daughter, professors wife, mother and grandmother extraordinaire, musician, humanitarian, healer, humble incarnation and servant. Susan is a divine reflection of powerful feminine energy and the Holy One that she follows. Thank you!

Mar 15, 2022, 5:27:14 AM

Lee and Martha Perkins - Wonderful story about a wonderful woman! Great project. Thanks for sharing.

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Susan Marston I Women's History Mon

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