Tammy Denise Martin
May 6, 1970-May 13, 2008

Tammy was the oldest of three daughters born to Dennis and Suzanne Beaty. She was born and raised in Colorado, living the majority of her life in the Four Corners area and in Mesa County. Tammy and her sisters, Melissa and Teresa, spent their childhood in rural Montezuma County. Tammy always enjoyed reading, music, drama and dreamed of travel. One of her early career choices was to become a travel agent. In high school, Tammy learned German. During her sophomore year, she was afforded the opportunity to pair her desire to travel abroad with her language skills for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. She worked doggedly for the next year and earned a spot in a foreign exchange student program that took her to live with a family in Germany for her senior year. It was one of the highlights of her young life, and she kept in touch with her host family for the next 20 years, even returning to Germany to attend her host sister's wedding.

Upon returning to Colorado after her year as an exchange student, Tammy completed her remaining high school credits in Grand Junction, where her mother and sisters had moved while she was away. She spent time living with her father in the Cortez area and then in California before settling back in Grand Junction. Tammy met and married Burke Martin in the early 1992. She and Melissa enrolled in courses at Technical Trades Institute. After completing the program, Tammy worked at a number of locations around the Grand Valley, including her church. Burke and Tammy welcomed their daughter, Erin, in February of 1996 and were blessed with a son, Connor, just a year later in April of 1997. In the years to come, Tammy continued to work part time at her church and became a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and HomewardBound of the Grand Valley. She also became a regular on stage as part of her church's Praise Team, and joined a writers group. She had always dreamed of writing a novel.

On October 24, 2006, Tammy received the devastating diagnosis of cancer. Over the next year and a half, Tammy fought a courageous battle while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for her children. As treatments progressed, her extended family talked of taking a large family vacation as soon as she recovered. As Tammy neared the end of her chemotherapy treatments in 2007, she and her sisters began to make plans to finally take that vacation. However, on what was to be the last day of treatment, her doctors discovered new tumors. The family decided to move the date of the vacation from January 2009, to October 2008. The second round of treatments were taking a heavier toll on Tammy's body, so the plans were moved up to June of 2008, just in case. When her condition became even worse, the family became determined to help Tammy realize her dream of taking her children on a cruise. The plans for all three sisters, their families and their parents to go together were then changed to a plan for just Tammy's family to take the trip. In the end, however, Tammy's condition deteriorated very rapidly, preventing her from achieving that dream. The aggressive chemotherapy treatments rendered her unable to travel in the last months of her life, and she passed away at home, with her husband and mother at her side, in May 2008. It was just one week after her 38th birthday.

Losing Tammy was hard enough, but knowing how much she had wanted to take that trip with her kids was nearly unbearable. It seemed so unfair that such a simple wish could not have been granted before she passed away. The family took time to grieve and then came together to discuss how we could best honor her memory in a real and lasting way. This is how the Tammy D. Martin Trips, Dreams, & Memories Foundation was formed. In a family so dedicated to public service, it just made sense to reach out and try to provide help to other families facing the same situation. With every dream we are able to fulfill, the positive impact on the lives of children just like Tammy's will be our tribute to her extraordinary life and our way of saying thank you for all she gave to us and to her community.

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