1921 – 2015

NEW GLOUCESTER — Martha Baird Lobozzo, 94, originally from Ayrshire, Scotland, passed away peacefully at her home on Monday, Nov. 23, after a brief but valiant fight against the ravages of lung cancer.

In recent weeks, all 12 of her grandchildren made the pilgrimage from as far away as Jackson Hole, Wyo., San Francisco, Calif., and Parsberg, Germany, to sit quietly by her bedside, holding her hand and sharing their affection and memories.

She was born May 7, 1921, in Hurlford, a small village in the county of Ayrshire, near the west coast of Scotland, to Peter and Elizabeth Baird, their middle child and only daughter. Her father died tragically in a workplace accident when she was just a toddler, but an extended family of aunts, uncles and grandparents stepped in to assist her mother in raising the young Martha in an atmosphere of love and support.

She was proud of being able to beat most of the boys on her street in a footrace, and being selected on academic merit as one of the village girls to attend Kilmarnock Academy, in the nearby “big city” of Kilmarnock, for secondary school.

Martha had her sights set on university in Glasgow when World War II broke out. She asked her older brother, David, what branch of the armed services she should join, and he recommended she become a nurse instead, which is what she did. She trained in the nearby Irvine Central Hospital, as well as Glasgow, and even London, becoming certified as a midwife, burn-unit and fever specialist. She had poignant memories of plastic surgery rotations, assisting in the care of soldiers and airmen who had been burned in combat. She also would tell of late-night bus rides as a midwife, returning after a home birth in the infamous Gorbals neighborhood of Glasgow, clutching an intact placenta, a required practice to show her supervisors the next day that the delivery had gone well.

Her nursing profession eventually took her to the British-American Hospital in Nice, France, which is where she met George Lobozzo, an itinerant civil engineer from Auburn, who was on leave from rebuilding air bases in Morocco. Martha’s family was not quite ready so soon after the war to embrace someone who was both Catholic and Italian, and so she traveled in 1955 to Maine alone, where the couple was wed at the Sixth Street Congregational Church in Auburn, and where George got a job working for Callaghan Construction. (With time, the Scots came around, and George was eventually much beloved, although they were always disappointed in his golf game.)

George went to work for Caterpillar Tractor, and the couple volunteered to return to Europe, where the demand for tractors was growing in the aftermath of the war. Martha gave birth to her son Allan, in Scotland. Her son David was born five years later in Rome, where the couple was stationed from 1959 to 1963, before being transferred to Geneva, Switzerland, where they remained, raising their two sons in a multinational atmosphere, until George’s unexpected death in 1984.

Sadly, Martha would eventually be a widow longer than she was a bride. After her husband’s death, she returned to Portland, where Allan was enrolled in law school, and David would eventually do his medical residency. She became affectionately and generously involved in the lives of her proliferating grandchildren.

Growing up, the grandchildren recall never lacking for car rides, as she was at her best on a spontaneous mission that involved transporting one or more of them in her Toyota RAV4 (she drove RAV4s for almost 20 years in all) to the destination of their choice, often a shopping blitz in Freeport. She drove her most recent RAV4 for longer than she probably should have, still gunning it out of the driveway and up Gloucester Hill Road as recently as early this summer, the vehicle’s tired frame sporting the dents, scratches and streaks that told the story of countless adventures and misadventures.

However, spontaneity and independence were hallmarks of her character, and the grandchildren were usually the beneficiaries, drawn delightfully and memorably into her world. Besides, who was going to be the one to take the keys away from her?

Martha is survived by her two sons and their wives, Allan and Mary of New Gloucester, and David and Heather, also of New Gloucester, currently residing in Parsburg, Germany. On Allan’s side, the grandchildren are Lydia, married to Alex Burnham, of New Gloucester; Peter of Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Jonathan, married to Jennifer Morse of Bath; Emma and fiancee, Rose, of Brooklyn; and Noah, attending Bates College. On David’s side, the grandchildren are John Paul of San Francisco; Molly, married to Nate Merrill of New Gloucester; Roux, Rita and Elizabeth, all of New Gloucester; George, attending Southern Maine Community College; and Sam, living in Parsberg and completing high school. She is also survived by five great-grandchildren, Lydia and Alex’s son, Jack, Molly and Nate’s sons, Elliott, Kai and Shae, and Rita’s daughter, Riley.

She is predeceased by both of her brothers, David of Balfron, Scotland, and Jim of Kilmarnock, Scotland.

The family would like to thank the nurses and aides from Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice, especially Bobbi and Deeanna, whose kindness, grace and professionalism will forever be associated with Martha’s final weeks of care.

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