Windham, New Hampshire, resident Elizabeth (Lisa) G. Martin, age 55, died March 13, 2016, at her home in Windham surrounded by her loving family.
Lisa was born May 29, 1960, in Waltham, Massachusetts, to Thomas F. Martin, now of Hyde Park, Vermont, and Jane Milner, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She spent her childhood years in Vermont. Among other things she enjoyed writing poetry, hiking and cross-country skiing, swimming and helping her grandparents with cooking at Tucker Hill Lodge, in Fayston. At 16, she was the youngest member of the Mad River Valley Ambulance Service.
After graduating from Harwood Union High School and the University of Vermont, she moved to Boston and got more involved with the food industry. She was married at Tucker Hill Lodge and moved to Windham where she raised her two children, Kylie Elizabeth Saad and Layla Jane Martin Saad.
Lisa was the executive chef of Culinary Capers, a Windham-based event catering business that she founded in 2002. Just this year Lisa’s business was awarded Windham’s Best Caterer in Windham Magazine. Lisa was a committed volunteer in the Windham community and her volunteer efforts included the Windham Women’s Business Connection, PTA president and the Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce. Diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014, Lisa was determined to make the most of life and fight with all her strength. She regularly posted inspirational messages on her Facebook page and in 2015 organized a Believe in Positivity Team which raised impressive funding for the Pelham, New Hampshire, Relay for Life.
Lisa leaves behind two daughters, Kylie and Layla Jane; and is also survived by her mother, Jane Milner; father, Tom Martin; stepmother, Nancy Martin; brothers, Stephen Martin of Fayston and Thomas (Tony) Martin Jr., of Shelburne; sister-in-law, Connie LaRoche; and sisters, Heidi Dumbrosky and Laurie Woogmaster, and their children; as well as extended family and “family of choice.”
Donations in memory of Lisa may be made to Windham’s Helping Hands, P.O. Box 4073, Windham, NH 03087, the American Cancer Society’s Pelham Relay for Life, in memory of Lisa’s team, Believe in Positivity, 61 Marsh Road, Pelham, NH 03087, or the Mad River Valley Community Fund, P.O. Box 353, Waitsfield, VT 05673.
