Pat Martin

APRIL 2022 PARKER COUNTY TODAY
By Shannon Shatzer

It has been said that local business-woman and community-minded volunteer Pat Martin is the kind of woman that makes a place better.

"I don't know about that," she replies, "but I sure have enjoyed being raised here, working here and being a part of the community, for sure. I just think that anytime you surround yourself with friends and good people, then your life is going to be positive."

She started a title company when her son was three or four. "My history in the title business is long, but it's all good," she says. She currently has Reunion Title of Texas.

She remembers coming up in a "man's world."

"When I actually went into Gabe Vick's office 47 years ago to get a divorce, he ended up giving me a job," she recalls, "and I instantly was thrown into the world of men, because I started being around his clients and then sat on the board of the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce. There was only one other woman there."

She considers Vick her major mentor. "Gabe Vick, by far! He was like my brother."

Asked why she started volunteering and taking on community-minded tasks, Martin explained: "Throughout the years I had been in meetings mostly with men in my younger life. There just weren't that many women out there in the business world. It's changed now. But at that point, when I realized how quickly I was accepted in the community being a single mother raising a son, that's when I decided to start giving back to the community. That was 50 years ago."

She helped establish the Parker County Health Foundation. "That's really been in existence for over thirty years [now]. It's different now, you know, but it was formed back then and it was all couples, all except me, I was the only single one on it. So the things I did back then was as a single mother. I'd like to encourage single mothers; you just have to get out there and fend for yourself."

For many years Martin mentored at Curtis Elementary in Weatherford. "I was in that program for twelve to fifteen years. I served Meals on Wheels for years, also, and my last route was one of those rural routes it took four hours to do. Those are my two favorite things that I did that took a lot of time, but I loved it."

What is her current favorite cause? "Well, the Parker County Health Foundation is my main one, because they support seven nonprofits. So the money we raise for PCHF supports a lot of nonprofits. When people give to that, they actually give to everybody. We give all our money away every year. Then there's also the Pink Luncheon, which is vital. So that's my favorite, for sure."

She also enjoys being involved with her church. "My very favorite thing in the world is to support my church and my God. I love helping with Bible study and in the children's areas, you know; anywhere I can serve the Lord, I'm there first." But on November 19, 2019, Martin was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, a fatal but treatable disease. "They say for five years, God knows, nobody else knows," she says. She says it is important to have the right attitude when facing

such serious situations, and adds, "If there's any way in the world that I can encourage, in my life right now, it's for people to know that if they have been diagnosed with anything, don't be torn down by it. The beat goes on. You've just got to do the best you can [with] whatever you've been handed. Cancer is such a scary word [but] it shouldn't stop you from all that you can do."

She says she has friends who became like hermits when they heard the "C" word, when they were diag- nosed. "There's a lot you have to do, but I continue to reach out, I continue to plan trips. You can get out and go or you can stay in a bubble." She said she counts on the Lord first, then friends.

"If people could see, since I've been diagnosed, all the places I've been, in between chemo and in between treatments, between everything. I think it would encourage them to not give up. God gives you every day for a reason; you've just got to make the best of whatever that is."

In December she took her whole family to Ruidoso on a ski trip, even though she'd also been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. "I couldn't get out of the house, but I cooked for them and did everything I could to be part of the Christmas gathering," she says. She also takes annual trips with friends she calls her 'golf and wine girls.' "On our trips we go on, we laugh so hard we can't even breathe." What's the best advice she's ever heard?

"I guess the best advice I've ever heard or read is in the Bible; and that would be 'do not fear for I am with thee."

Asked to relate a funny story from her life, Martin replies: "Oh, Lord... my life is a comedy. Have to think about that. So many funny things I've done. I laugh all the time. So it's hard to say."