Martha's Eulogy
Judging by her carapace(shell), Martha was just about 30 years old. She had been born not long before the heavy hurricane rains of 1996 that bloated and infuriated little Goose Creek where she spent her life meandering the silt-strewn stream bed. And you could say that Martha was loved by few, but loved nonetheless. For the past 3 years, some temporary tenants of her space would visit her daily, straining their eyes to see her through the turbid water, borne by years of over-grazing and neglect in her little watershed. On the Morning of May 18, around 8 AM after a night of Spring Rains and foraging under the sounds of tree frogs and the Eastern Screech, Martha started her journey up from Goose Creek to find a good place to lay this season's clutch of eggs. She was struck by a vehicle before she ever got there. Martha's 8 leathery, perfect eggs lay strewn in the road while she breathed her last. Her two biggest fans found her moments later, a cracked carapace where beau
