Mara's Portland, Oregon Memorial Service-with Additions and Tempory Deletions

Below is the program and some of the speeches from the Portland, Oregon Commemoration Service held to celebrate Mara. With appologies it is a bit small because it was scanned in as a JPEG.









REMARKS BY SARAH BUCKLEY AT MARA GALATY’S MEMORIAL SERVICE IN PORTLAND OREGON

I am honored to have been asked to speak; many thanks to Mara’s family for holding a Portland service.

Mara had such an impact on my professional life and of many others at Mercy Corps-- from interns to Country Directors.

Mara and I worked together from 2001 to 2004 when she left for USAID. As it the case for everyone Mara came into contact with, we hit it off immediately. We were the civil society team at Mercy Corps HQ. Responsible for working with hundreds of staff around the world on deepening citizen participation, government accountability and peaceful change in MC’s programs. We complemented each other well. Mara was full of great ideas and an ability to convince others of them. I was the more practical implementer.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Mara almost singlehandedly got Mercy Corps to truly adopt it’s Civil Society approach in its programs. I won’t try to explain this in too much detail but many of you will know what I’m talking about. Through sheer force of personality she was able to convince the most cynical field staff of the importane of civic sector strengthening in all of their programs. She was so enjoyable and creative to work with that field staff always knew they’d get a great product and her all if they could command some of her valuable time. I still think she is one of the most creative people I’ve ever worked with. And I take heart knowing that there’s folks like her in this world.

When I was working in Sri Lanka for Mercy Corps last year, I e-mailed with her, writing about how much I was enjoying managing a team. Mara, in her affirming way, wrote back “I’d work for you anytime.” It was this kind of supportive attitude that she had a supervisor that reminds and inspires me to unconditionally support others as the only way for all of us to reach our full potential. Mara always included me in her work. We’d spend hours together sitting at her computer or at the flip chart working out something that I’m convinced she could have done by herself in half the time. But she always made my input feel important and she was building my capacity as was her style and our job to do with others.

The list of skills I learned from Mara is endless. One that I will long cherish is training and facilitation. Mara gave me the confidence that I had something worthwhile to teach others when we were in the former soviet republic of Georgia doing a series of three trainings for Mercy Corps and local NGO staff on the principles of civil society. I was petrified-never having conducted any training before. She let me pick different exercises to conduct each time and supported me to do them. This was the beginning for me of doing something I enjoy very much and try to include in my work whenever possible.

While I’m still learning to do this effectively, Mara taught me to relax, love life and not to take it all so seriously. She had the right priorities. I watched her go through some awful times—I’ll never forgot walking into her cubicle one morning wanting to share about an event I’d just been to the way we always shared our work experiences. John was there and they told me she had breast cancer. I was amazed as I watched her deal with this heroically over the next couple years never letting it take over her life. I’ll never forget when she walked into my cube one morning and told me that her marriage was in trouble, and again watched her deal with this blow never letting it take over her life.

She dealt by sharing. I loved her for that. I always felt we shouldn’t be ashamed of our lives but still feel that I make others uncomfortable by sharing. Mara didn’t care. And rightly so. She survived by sharing. She was incredibly generous this way. It was another way she prioritized what mattered in life. She never sacrificed sharing with another person to some deadline and need to get tasks done. She was about interacting with people in an honest, forthright, humerous way.

I’m not sure how she did it but Mara was never afraid to be my boss and my friend. And I’ll never forget her for that.

And I would be hugely remiss if I didn’t say something Mara’s special legacy to me and my husband Jordan who also works at Mercy Corps: Grizzly and Maddy. When Mara was diagnosed with cancer she and John felt they needed slow down a little bit and get more grounded in Portland. Maybe something that would encourage them to travel less. They found the most beautiful, sweet cats out there. When they broke up and moved, I readily accepted the cats for a time, then for the long-term. They are such an important comfort in our lives today and they remind me of her all the time. She has given us a gift like no other. I feel a connection with her knowing how much she loved Maddy and Grizz and how happy it made her to know how much we love them too.

REMARKS BY LISA DOMENICO AT MARA GALATY’S MEMORIAL SERVICE IN PORTLAND OREGON

Cancer is very difficult to comprehend. It strikes without warning. It takes lives too early. I believe it is fair to say that we are all struggling with this as we gather here today to honor Mara. I look for help wherever I can find it and I am learning to never underestimate the wisdom of young people.

When I went thru my cancer treatment, my son was 4 years old. One typical busy morning of making lunches and getting ready for work and school, he came up to me with his hands cupped like this. He said, “this is for you, Mama.” He opened his hands and they were empty. So I asked him what he was giving me and he said, “time.” He was giving me more time. (pause)

Mara has two young sisters here in Portland, Kassel and Laurel. I think we can learn from them as well.

When Kassel was 11 and in the 6th grade, she wrote this essay for school:

"Courage

"On Dec 31, 2000 my sister was married. When midnight came, everyone cheered including my sister. Pictures of her wedding show her with long dark hair and a beautiful smile. But one year later, her hair was gone and sometimes her smile too. My sister had breast cancer.

"My family and I rushed to help her thru this terrible ordeal. But when I saw her, I did not see my sister. I saw someone else. Her long dark hair was replaced by short platinum hair, her smile looked happy but sad. This was now my sister.

"My sister had chemotherapy every Friday. My sister came back from chemotherapy tired and sometimes her smile was replaced by a frown or even a tear.

"She kept losing her hair, eyelashes even. I started doubting that her old hair would ever come back. She kept on having chemo but the cancer stayed. So she then had an operation. After her operation she had to train her left arm again, from wriggling her fingers, to lifting a box. Where was my sister?

"But even after the operation the cancer stayed. So my sister started having chemo again but even then the cancer stayed.

"So then my sister tried radiation, everyday for 3 weeks. Then near the end of the 3 weeks, the doctors found no trace of cancer!

"After that, my sister’s smile came back, but her hair did not. Her hair started getting longer and darker but not like her wedding. When suddenly I realized, this was my sister. My sister from the wedding would never come back because my new sister had seen things that she before had not seen. She had been thru something no one wants to go thru. But most important, she had found courage inside herself, that hadn’t been there before."

The Louis Armstrong song, “It’s a Wonderful World” is a family favorite. It was recorded a week ago by Laurel. It is dedicated to Mara’s memory.
The perspective of young people is amazing.