ROCKLAND — Erleen Harden Martin, died peacefully on October 4, 2023, at the age of 101. She was in her own bed, in her own home, where she wanted to be, with one of her sons lying next to her.

In her 100th year, Erleen could still write poetic lines and perhaps more remarkably in the minds of some, could recite those lines from memory. She was fond of reciting a poem that started with the line, “When I was born, I weighed three pounds/and began my life in an old shoe box.” Imagine a time where incubators were rare and premature birth could mean being put in a shoe box in a warm oven. Fortunately, that intervention worked, she survived, and became instantly hard-wired with resilient traits.

From the start, she lived her life very much on her own terms. She survived the fear and poverty of the Depression, applying learned lessons of frugality when older, living alone on a fixed income.

She was so smart, she graduated high school at sixteen. Her grandfather promised to pay for her college education. When the time came, he wouldn’t honor his promise saying that she would just end up getting married and waste his money.

Fortunately, women’s opportunities during World War II were unprecedented and she got her chance to go away to school if only Western Union school to be trained to fill what had always been a man’s job.

Near the end of the war, she did get married, to Richard B Harden, Sr (Dick) and together they built a wonderful life, raising two sons and like others of the post-war generation, built the schools, worked, and volunteered, paid taxes, created civic societies, cared for others, young and old.

Erleen learned the value of work early on, both to earn money and give her life purpose, balancing home life with working. Many in Rockland knew her as the Office Manager at the popular women’s department store, Senter Crane’s.

She was an active volunteer, particularly at the local Congregational Church adding her artistic talents, donating saleable crafts.

Erleen was always very sociable with a large circle of close friends. She enjoyed parties and loved to entertain and was a great coastal cook, continuing to prepare meals for herself and others up until only a few months before her death.

Erleen was a talented artist, something she reconnected with in later life. A number of her paintings are hanging in the homes of friends and relatives. Having had a cottage in Union, she did one painting for the town of Union that is displayed in the Union Come Spring Museum.

She and her first husband, Dick, retired at 65, that’s what you did back then; but they never stopped volunteering and contributing to their community. Sadly, Dick died too young at 67. As a widow, Erleen tapped into her super-powers, resilience, and connection, she went to a widow’s support group, she went out dancing, she volunteered, she went to Yoga class, she played golf, she traveled south.

In Florida, she met and married Richard Martin, and enjoyed many wonderful years in her second home in Florida, traveling back and forth from Maine to Florida, playing golf, gathering a new circle of friends and neighbors.

When Erleen was in her 100th year, Richard had a fall and had to move into a long-term care facility. She chose at that time to move back to her own home in Maine rather than join Richard. They continued to support each other through daily phone calls. Her goal became to live independently in her own home around her own things, to be in Rockland for her 100th birthday. She achieved that goal and one more, celebrating her 101st this past May. A bad fall in May set her back but she was still working hard to maintain her independence and dignity up until close to the end. A friend said, what Erleen had is what we all wish for, that our health span ends up being almost as long as our life span.

Erleen was a loving wife, mother, and revered aunt, grandmother, and great grandmother. She is survived by her husband, Richard Martin; sons, Richard Harden Jr., and wife, Lucy, Donald, and wife Kathleen; seven grandchildren, Chris, Jack, Jill, Sarah, Laurie, Neal, and Caroline, and nine greatgrandchildren, Jarrod, Jordan, Quinn, Milo, Zeke, Nyah, Maelyn, Paul, Brooke, Nilo, and recently welcomed into the world, Hazel; her sister, Mary Benner and brother-in-law, Ernest; nieces, Heather, Cathy, Nancy, Linda, and Susan, and nephews Brian, Larry, Steve, Martin, Danny, and Mathew.

She was predeceased by her husband, Richard Harden Sr.; her parents, Frederick and Ella Cates; and brother, Donald Cates.

It takes a village to support a Centenarian and Erleen was grateful for human contact and assistance to remain and thrive in her own home, the list is long, and at the risk of overlooking someone, special thanks to her nieces Nancy and Linda, friends, Cora, Signe, Martha, Elizabeth, and those friends who passed before her, particularly Anna, neighbors, Joanne and Midge, sister Mary, and brother-in-law Ernest. It would not have been possible to remain at home without the support of Meals On Wheels, both the meals and the people who delivered, and the Maine Health Hospice at Home Team which started when a sensitive ER doctor treating Erleen at the Pen Bay Medical Center asked her what “what most mattered to her” and sent her home, where she wanted to be, with a referral for hospice. She was able to die with dignity thanks to the competent and compassionate care of Brandi, Regina, and Mallory from the Hospice Team, and her new friend, her hospice volunteer, Rebecca. In Erleen’s memory let us dedicate ourselves to supporting these essential services.

A memorial service will be held Friday, October 20, 2023, at 11 a.m., at the Congregational Church of Rockland, 180 Limerock Street. While flowers are welcome, in honor of Erleen’s legacy of aging with an age positive attitude, those who wish may make memorial contributions to the Maine Council on Aging, Power In Aging Project, C/O MCOA, P.O. Box 988, Brunswick, ME 04011.

Arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, Rockland. To view a live-stream of Erleen’s service please visit her Book of Memories at www.bchfh.com, then ‘Photos & Videos’, and tab Watch Webcast.