Martha Mantalos

Celebrating Martha (Covatis) Mantalos

February 10, 1916 - October 28, 2019
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"Oh, what a beautiful day - not a cloud in the bright blue sky!!" is the way Mom would have described Monday, October 28, 2019.

We'll remember that Monday, forever, for its spectacular brilliance and that, on that blue-sky day, Martha (Covatis) Mantalos, our beloved Mom, left us, her two devoted daughters, Touli and Shirley, to marvel at it - without her.

We kissed Mom - the best mother, ever - good-bye that morning after lovingly caring for her at home in Charlottesville, Virginia, with the support of our compassionate Hospice of the Piedmont team.

On that October Monday afternoon, we did exactly what Mom would have encouraged; we drove to her 'favorite tree', an historic white oak on a hill overlooking a Blue Ridge Mountain vista ablaze with autumnal splendor. In her honor, in the warmth of the afternoon sun, through tears, we celebrated nature's beauty just as she would have done. Three birds soaring overhead against that cloudless blue sky confirmed for us that Martha was pleased.

And, in her honor, on February 10, 2020, we'll celebrate Martha's 104th birthday - cake and candles and 'Hronia Polla!!' (many happy years). As Mom would often say, "The Greeks had a word for it."

Martha's joy-filled life as a young woman growing up in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she was born on February 10, 1916, included being immersed in a 'big fat Greek' family active in the church, St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, where in 1949, Martha married our father, George A. Mantalos.

Her mother, our yiayia Anastasia (Tsoumas) Covatis, emigrated from Greece to Manchester with her husband, our papou, Nicholas Covatis, where, on Bell Street, they raised their family of six: daughters, Stella, Martha, Helen and sons, Cosmos, Socrates and George.

Martha Covatis was excited to get her 'first job' with the Puritan Tea Room as a 16-year-old Central High School student. Little did she know that she would stay on the job as part of the Puritan team for over sixteen years, until she met and married George Mantalos in 1949, and moved with him to Brockton, Massachusetts, where they raised two daughters, Touli and Shirley.

Growing up, we were treated to many a 'Puritan Tale', including that her nickname during her sixteen-year career was 'Marty'. At age 103, Martha continued to reminisce about the 'war years', fellow Puritan employees including her sister, Stella, and brother, Cosmos, Tony 'Chick' Chicaderis, favorite customers and the irresistible Puritan ice cream.

Martha carefully kept an original Puritan menu, a treasure that often stirred memories of a very joyous time in her life. If Martha heard you were traveling to New Hampshire, she encouraged you to 'go through Manchester and dine at the Puritan.' In 2017, the Puritan celebrated its 100th year in business; Martha received a special note and commemorative 100th Anniversary t-shirt.

On Saturday nights, after she put in a long day happily tending to customers at the Puritan Tea Room, she and her friends 'danced the night away' to the big bands at the Bedford Grove Carousel Ballroom.

When talking about the 'Bedford Grove', Mom often described a favorite black dress with white magnolia blossom on the shoulder as she recalled dancing under the stars on warm summer evenings to one of Frank Sinatra's signature songs, and her favorite tune, I've Got You Under My Skin.

In recent months, Mom enjoyed singing along with us to Sinatra's greatest hits from the 30s and 40s, inviting her to journey back to the 'good old days' of her youth. Besides music from the 'big band era', on many mornings, as Martha savored her breakfast, we'd read aloud to her tales of the her beloved 'Queen City' from the book Faces And Places In The City by Manchester historian and Executive Director of the Manchester Historic Association, John Clayton. We'll always remember watching Mom's face light up as she relived her youth through Mr. Clayton's colorful look back at the Puritan Tea Room, Manchester's vibrant Greek community, Pine Island Park, Winter Carnival and more.

Martha's 'big fat Greek' family got bigger and noisier after marrying into George Mantalos' Brockton oikoge'nia (family). We gained yiayia, Soultana, and papou, Achilles Mantalos, uncles Timothy, Arthur, Harry, aunts Bess, Clara, Marilyn and cousins.

After Sunday School and the Divine Liturgy at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Brockton and dinner with our family, Sunday afternoons were spent sipping 'kafe' out of demitasse cups served with yiayia's kourabiethes (Greek sugar cookies) al fresco on
our grandparents' tree-shaded patio.

Our family gatherings at the holidays were love-laced - and delicious. Martha's platter of spanakopita disappeared as soon as she put it down. Her avgolemono (egg-lemon) soup was superb.

Speaking Greek with yiayia and papou, our aunts and uncles, offered us, the next generation, an opportunity to polish what we'd learned in Greek school which we attended twice a week for six years; Mom, known for her eloquent Greek, was there to help with Greek school homework.

As it happened, Martha's husband, George, his father, Achilles, and brothers, Arthur and Harry, were restaurateurs known for their delectable Greek fare offered up at the Belmont Lunch on Belmont Street, off Brockton's Main Street.

When the Mantalos brothers built their new, and soon very popular, Parkway Restaurant on Oak Street in Brockton, nearly all the family got involved, including Martha, whose early in life experience made her a most valued employee.

Martha and George were on the same parenting page. It was all about agape (love) for each other, the family, our friends; being Greek; excelling in school; playing the piano well; enjoying lots of time outdoors in nature; caring about the garden and all things living - whether an injured bird or our parakeets, Chirpy and Skipper, cats Snowball, Midnight and Lucy, our dog, Bonzo.

Martha Mantalos was happiest outdoors. Thanks to our mother, we continue to marvel at: the 'sliver of a moon' on a starry night; the very first tree bud after the long winter; wild violets dotting the green lawn; birds building their nests; the powder blue hue of a robin's egg; the robin's evening song; the sweet scent of her favorite lilacs that she'd cut for our table.

Martha loved to travel. We explored our patree'tha (homeland) Greece as a family and accompanied Daddy on his first visit back to the chorio' (village) of Kalloni, Mom holding his hand as he walked into the home he grew up in, a tiny stone house in the mountains he dared to leave at age nineteen for a 'better life' in America.

Our family enjoyed vacationing in Canada. Mom fell in love with the lush natural beauty and dark sand beaches of Hawaii where she traveled twice.

We have a photo of Mom playing baseball at age sixteen, probably around the time she got 'hooked' on the Red Sox. Our friends will tell you, if you wanted to 'talk baseball', Martha was the go to person!! She never missed a televised game and enjoyed many visits to Fenway, where a family friend in the 'front office' gifted her with the best seats, "1st base, 3rd base, or behind home plate; your pick, Martha!!"

We've nurtured lifetime friendships following Martha's good example. Everyone who met Martha never forgot her smile, her positivity - glass half full, that silver lining.

"Age is only a number", she'd say - all her long and gorgeous life. If we presented her with an issue not worthy of our worry, she'd offer her best advice: "Rixte to exo!!" (throw it out).

Martha's list of favorites could paper the Planet: her husband, George, who called her 'Marthetsou', her daughters; the family, including nieces and nephews now left behind; her friends, whom she cherished deeply; Cape Cod's beaches; crossword puzzles; reading the Boston Globe; dancing Greek at glendis (festivals) at the Church; celebrating Pavarotti and The Fantastiks, Symphony, other theatre in Boston; lovingly listening, then lending a friend her best advice; sending Christmas cards and caring notes; decorating our tree at Christmas; red eggs at Easter; spending time outdoors; the Red Sox (worth repeating) and chocolate ice cream!!

And that was Martha, our perfect mother. She gifted us with kindness, compassion, empathy, faith, hope, love of beauty and the ongoing quest for joy.

We extend our gratitude to Martha's physicians, Hope Hospice of Cape Cod and Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville for their extraordinary care and kindness provided over many years.

Martha would be most pleased if family and friends wanting to honor her memory did so by making a 'Tribute Gift in Honor of Martha Mantalos' to the National Audubon Society, an organization dedicated to saving the birds Martha so loved: https://action.audubon.org/donate/make-tribute-gift.

At some time in the future, we're planning a celebration of life in honor of the best mother, ever, Martha Mantalos. Watch for the invite.

Our mother was so full of joy and life. We are her children. And that is better than being the children of anyone else in the world. ~ Maya Angelou