Mary Mertz

"Birth is given astride a grave, the light gleams an instant, then its night once more." MARY KATHLEEN MERTZ died June 4, 2007 at her Deep River, Washington residence. She was born in Salem, Oregon in 1948 to Neil O. and Ellen Selander. She attended Sacred Heart Academy during her freshman and sophomore years and graduated from South Salem High School. She worked for State Farm Insurance over a 29 years period until her early retirement in 2000. She enjoyed working with her husband Donovan, completing the building of their dream log home and making lumber for their other building projects. She was an avid animal observer and especially enjoyed watching the elk herds that roamed their property. She also got to know all of the varieties of ducks that would visit in the winter and could watch them for hours. She took up organic gardening and she and her husband cultivated a year round garden and maintained a number of fruit and nut trees. Vegetable gardening, "putting up the harvest", boating, ocean salmon fishing and property maintenance kept her busy in the summer time and wood gathering for their outdoor boiler occupied her time in the fall. Tent camping, hiking, clamming, crabbing, backpacking or just walking the property filled in remaining leisure time. Traveling outside of the Pacific N.W. was never a priority for Mary, although she did enjoy recent trips to N.Y. City, Belize Central America, Las Vegas and Victoria, B.C. She was always anxious to return from such trips to her beloved home in the woods. A couple of Mary's thoughts as she dealt with her terminal cancer condition (extracted from a letter written to a sister-in-law): "I feel at peace with my life because God has given us such a wonderful place to live. Being in nature is so calming. I thank God every day for allowing me to live here. What better life could I have had? I have had so many rewarding experiences with being able to see the elk calves from the time they could hardly walk, finding a nest of mallard hen eggs and watching her tend to her eggs, seeing a baby bobcat – oh it was so cute – and my favorite, the fawns. Then most of all, I have a wonderful husband that loves the very things that I love. So I feel blessed, very blessed. Mary is survived by her husband Donovan Lee Mertz; step-son Corey Donovan Mertz; step-daughters Cindy Miller, Maria Cooley, Julie Ness and Shelly Davis; her mother Ellen L. Selander; sisters Nancy Drobniak, Sara DeBolt, Debra Ransom, Lisa Bacheller and Molly Bemis; brothers Michael Selander, Patrick Selander and Arthur Selander. She also had 11 grandchildren whom she enjoyed immensely. She was preceded in death by her father Neil O. Selander and sister Joellen O'Connor. In lieu of funeral or graveside services, Mary chose to hold family gatherings prior to her death so that she could be part of her life's celebration. Please sign the guestbook and share a memory at www.penttilaschapel.com.