Mary Ann Clement Tribute

Mary Ann was born 1948, six years after her older sister, me.  She had many life-long friends.  When she lived on Third Street, she and Susan Kalaman Stanko became friends.  Later in grade and high schools, she became friends with Cheryl/Clare Puskarczy.  In early high school, Jimmy Brian became her first, and long-time, boyfriend.  While in high school, Mary Ann played in the HS band and, during the summers, was a lifeguard at Roosevelt Park pool.  After high school and a bit of college (where she and Linda Pera became good friends), she moved to Columbus where Jimmy was living.  She worked as a paste-up artist there.

 In 1971, she moved to MA and lived with me for about a year. During this time, she met Edmund Aiello and they got married in May, 1972.  They spent a number of years buying houses on Cape Cod to live in, doing some fix up or not, and buying the next one until finally they bought a farm in East Falmouth which house needed much renovation.  At some time during this period Mary Ann worked as a top-side boat painter at a boat yard in Falmouth.  This is a job she loved, but because of the lack of proper safety precautions, the job was unfortunately (probably)  the cause of some of her later health problems.  During this period her new friends, Karen Crabtree and Anne Boucher, an accomplished artist, came into her life.

Once they had the farm, Mary Ann started building a dream.  She and Edmund planted vegetable crops, nut trees, pick-your-own flowers, strawberries, and later, just pumpkins.  She would start her seedlings on the second floor in the barn and move them outside later.  She had a beautiful farm stand from which she sold her crops.  In her spare time!, she would bake various breads, and make jams that she would sell at the stand. When she wasn't working on the farm or on the house she was at the beach.  She loved the oceanshe would dig clams or pick shells for hours.  In some ways this was the best time of her life, in others, not so good.  During the time on the farm Edmund's and her marriage started dissolving, eventually ending in divorce, thus ending both the marriage and the farm. 

At this time she met Edmund Centrella, whom she subsequently married and divorced twice.  They eventually landed up in Texas and built a beautiful house near Canyon lake.  The wonderful relationship that started out between them began to sour and eventually they sold the house and, in 1995, Mary Ann moved back up to her farmhouse.  Just as she was moving back to Falmouth, she found a lump on her breast, thus starting her long battle with breast cancer. 

During her time in Boston, Mary Ann met Ruth Kirchwey and they became the best of friends. Ruth and Mary Ann shared many similar experiences in their lives.  Ruth says we are her "sisters".

After all her surgery and chemo were done, Ed Centrella turned up again and they went off to Florida together. Eventually MA bought her house in Nokomis around yr2000. In between her trips to Boston for medical treatment and her increasing debilitation she spent all the time she was able making the house and yard into a work of art.  Even though she was never satisfied, she created a beautiful setting. Ruth helped Mary Ann a great deal when she and her husband, Kim, would go down to Nokomis during the winter and stay with Mary Ann.  Ruth loves working in the yard and helped tremendously in creating Mary Ann's beautiful yard.

One of the things Mary Ann wanted very badly to do was go traveling to Costa Rica, Mexico, or somewhere.  Unfortunately, by the time we could do it, she was too sick to travel.  Whenever I travel, I take some of her ashes and scatter them.  She is now in Columbia River, Oregon, Mt. St. Helens, and the Kalahari Desert with the meerkats.  Not very close to the real experience.

Finally in June, 2008, she was in such pain that Hospice suggested she be put into a Hospice Facility.  The facility was beautiful and she had every comfort.  She was there about a week before she died.  We were very lucky that during the early part of the week Ruth and I stayed overnight and had a pajama party with Mary Ann.

It is a testament to Mary Ann that she has kept all her friends...including ex-boyfriends and husbands!  They all kept in contact with her and shared in the sadness of her death.

This tribute is a celebration of her life.