It is safe to say I will never regret my weekend with Martha Coleman.
She was born in Augusta, Georgia, but is really from all over. However, you can just say Martha Coleman is from Union Point, Georgia, for time’s sake.
Martha Coleman is a city girl, who traveled from state to state with her family, depending on where her dad was stationed at the time. She also worked in a beauty shop before she became the proud owner of one right in the middle of Greene County. Martha Coleman: city girl, army brat, beauty shop worker and then proud owner. Now, Martha Coleman: wife of a retired farmer, whose husband’s true passion in life is … cow.
I knocked on the Coleman’s door towards the beginning of my weekend in Greene County after I drove by and saw their cows and cool old truck. I thought this would make for some really nice images.
Little did I know, I was about to sit in a sun room with Martha Coleman, city girl, army brat, beauty shop worker, then proud owner and now wife of a retired farmer, for two hours. We talked about old men, old men who sit and talk about old women, her two grown children and five grandchildren, and how to make it through life with as little regrets as possible. Martha Coleman and I laughed in those matching wooden rocking chairs as if we had known each other our whole lives. Something I have a feeling everyone who has the chance to meet Martha Coleman feels.
Martha Coleman loves to travel. She and a girlfriend choose a fabulous destination to visit every two years. Something she credits to her childhood of constantly moving. She attended 11 different schools growing up. But she’ll quickly tell you not to seem too shocked at that because her brother attended 22.
Martha Coleman loves to visit Europe. But her husband, Ray Coleman, the retired farmer, has never left the country because there is just too much to see right here in America. He adds one “of course,” for emphasis.
In fact, Ray Coleman left Greensboro to go to college, and came right back to live on the street all the other Coleman’s live on. He even moved into the very house where his grandfather was born. Martha Coleman knows her husband likes two things: cows and stability. Well, maybe three. She knows her husband likes three things: cows, stability and her, of course.
Martha Coleman loves to argue with her husband, but she never regrets moving to the farm with him. They constantly butt heads, but never over the fact that they love their home. They love each other and the family they built in the house where Ray Coleman’s grandfather was born.
Martha Coleman, city girl, army brat, beauty shop worker, then proud owner, and now wife of a retired farmer, never imagined her life would bring her here. To raise cows, dumb animals she just can’t quite understand. But she will never regret the fact that it did.
Grason Passmore is a senior majoring in journalism in Grady College Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
