BRYANT — When Marietta Roth needed a caregiver, she didn’t have to ask for help. It was all around her.
Over the past dozen years, Marietta has taken in three women, all of whom needed a quiet place to start over.
Her rules are absolute. No cussing or drinking and, at 87, she will paint walls and collect kindling for the fire as she pleases. She’s owned acreage in the Bryant area, north of Arlington, since 1963.
Marietta had back surgery in October. She spent five weeks in the hospital, after which she required around-the-clock care.
Her roommates had it covered, a chance to care for the woman who had cared for them in their times of need.
Marietta was raised on her grandfather’s farm near Bozeman, Montana. In her family, once you could walk, you could work. When she was old enough to ride a horse for the mile-long trek to retrieve the cows, “Boy, that was a big day for me,” she said.
The family lost the farm when she was 13.
“We had to move to town. Yuck,” she said.
She babysat and cleaned houses, and at 16 took a job at Woolworth’s in Bozeman.
She turned 18 her junior year of high school, married two weeks later and quit classes. She later left the marriage, moving with her first son to be closer to family and finding a job at another Woolworth’s in Seattle.
She remarried and had two more sons. When that marriage ended, she decided she wanted her boys to grow up in the country like she did. It was the best decision she ever made for them, she said.
Around the time she bought the land along Highway 9, she was being courted by Bob Roth, a farmer, plumber and electrician from North Dakota.
“In those days I didn’t talk much,” she said. “He talked all the time.”
They were married for 48 years until his death. Two years into the marriage, Bob asked if she’d like to quit working.
“Bob, he let me be me,” she said. “You don’t always get that in a husband.”
She devoted her free time to her boys. They got involved with 4-H and the Future Farmers of America, and so did Marietta. They started with dogs, then cows and sheep. One year, they had 150 chickens.
When the boys were grown, she started mentoring young women in 4-H and home economics. She went back to school and earned her high school diploma.
Deanna Espinoza, 52, was 9 when she met Marietta, who taught her to sew, cook and bake bread. When Espinoza was in high school, Marietta drove her to the fair in Puyallup, where she gave her first public speech. The topic? How to freeze broccoli.
Espinoza grew up, got married and then hit hard times. When she needed a place to stay more than three years ago, Marietta offered her a room.
A year later, Espinoza’s friend, Ann Merwin, was living in her car. Merwin asked if she could keep some stuff at Marietta’s place. She, too, became a roommate. When Espinoza was having trouble with her vision and walking, Merwin, 58, helped her get by.
Kay Crabtree, 73, has been with Marietta the longest, more than a dozen years.
“We have a little village going here,” Espinoza said.
The women like taking back-road drives with Marietta. She tells them stories about the people and places she’s known. They went to Mount St. Helens together this summer and they attend Bryant Community Church.
Espinoza cooks and cleans, and Merwin tends to Marietta’s needs and does the driving. A man who also has been through hard times lives in a mobile home on the property. He fixes their cars and works in the yard.
Marietta makes quilts. She’s given 520 so far to charities. She founded the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society. She ran the food program at the Silvana Fair for more than a decade.
She used to be more involved. It’s hard letting go, she said.
Until her recent surgery, she mowed, pruned trees and weeded. She kept painting the outbuildings on her property until one of her sons took away her taller ladders. She kept painting, though she couldn’t reach the top boards.
Doctors have told Marietta to take it easy. On Monday, Espinoza caught her pushing the wheelbarrow in the yard, picking up willow branches.
Marietta hopes to move around without her walker again. Her three sons, David, Michael and Robert, are living in Othello, in Eastern Washington. She has four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
One of the grandsons has been saving money. The plan is for him to make a down payment on the Bryant house in a few years.
He and his wife told Marietta she can stay, and they’ll take care of her. She also could move to Othello, with her sons.
From her chair, working on her quilts, she likes watching people walk their dogs on the Centennial Trail. From there she also can see the leaves piling up outside and the twigs that need sorted for kindling.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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