GARRETT, Mary Lea

When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure to both hold and pass on. Mary Lea Garrett, our Mom and Granny, joined our Dad/Big Daddy under the Blue Moon surrounded by a glorious rainbow ring of ice crystals on December 31, 2009. They were married for 65 years before Dad left to make the way for Mom on February 5, 2009. Mary Lea was raised in Colorado by her parents, Dr. Edwin and Nora Schofield, along with her brother Robert Schofield. Mary Lea met her life’s love, Max Garrett (pictured above), while she was attending college in Winfield, Kansas and he was serving as a pilot in the Army Air Corp. They married after a short courtship and Max took her back to his beloved Texas to begin their life together. Their honeymoon was spent camping on a Texas beach. After spending most of their married life in Houston, they moved to Austin and the Texas Hill Country. Mom became a transplanted Texan but always retained her love for her native Colorado and her mountains. Mom was a talented wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother whose love of nature, animals and adventure in the great outdoors was passed on to her children, Judy Brown (Doug) of Austin; Edie Mandel (Theo) of Scottsdale, Arizona/ Boulder, Colorado; Max E. Garrett (Vicki) of Houston; and Merrily Garrett of Atlanta, Georgia. She was “Granny” to her seven grandchildren, Carrie Quintanilla (Sonny), Wendy Francis, Lauren Drawe (Jeff), Elizabeth Garrett, Charlotte Garrett, Tyler Garrett and Meriah Garrett, and to her great-grandson Gavin Austin Drawe. She will also be fondly remembered by cousins, nieces, nephews and special friends. Mom/Granny created special memories for her children and grandchildren of camping under the stars; biscuits made in a reflector oven; catching piggy perch on cane poles in the Frio and Blanco rivers; catching blue-claw crabs and shell hunting on the Texas Coast, making Spring wildflower treks in the Texas Hill Country, hiking the high lakes and meadows in Colorado and Wyoming, and raising turtles, rabbits, hamsters, birds, dogs, cats, a fawn and one pig in the backyard in Houston, although not all at the same time. Mom/Granny became a self-taught expert on Texas Wildflowers and Birds, planting Bluebonnets and attracting many feathered friends to her feeders, delighting anyone lucky enough to be able to birdwatch with her. She taught all of us a love of and appreciation for the natural world and all its mysteries. Following their wishes, Mom and Dad’s lives together will be celebrated by family and friends in Texas in the spring when the wildflowers bloom, followed by the scattering of ashes in the Colorado mountains. The family would like to thank the owners and loving staff at the Lodge at Rocky Hollow in Georgetown and the wonderful folks at Texas Home Health Hospice for their care and compassion for Mom, Dad and the family during the past year. Donations in Mom’s name can be made to the National Parks Association, Texas Parks and Wildlife or the Nature Conservancy– or just hang a bird feeder or scatter some Bluebonnet seeds.