This obit is a few years old. Not sure how many of you remember Betty LaMarca. I may not join in accord with her enthusiasm for Hyde back in those days, but she was good people none the less. Personally, I think Hyde really took this family for a ride.
Can anyone tell me whether Hyde bothered to write something laudatory when she died? I couldn't find anything. Of all people, she definitely deserved that final full gun salute.
OBITUARIESThe Boston GlobeMargaret LaMarca, at 75; medical secretary at hospitalsBy Theresa C. Sanchez, Globe Correspondent | May 24, 2005Margaret E. (Dobbie) LaMarca, a retired medical secretary who operated a rooming house with her husband on Beacon Hill for foreign patients receiving medical treatment in the Boston area, died May 17 at her Barnstable home. She was 75 and had pancreatic cancer.
''I would describe Betty as an exceptionally graceful and dignified individual that worked extremely well with everybody," said Dr. Jeremy N. Ruskin, director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service at Massachusetts General Hospital. ''The things that come to mind about her are she was competent, thoughtful, and extremely capable. She handled very complicated and stressful work with great equanimity."
The youngest child of Scottish immigrants, Mrs. LaMarca was born in Boston and grew up in Milton. She graduated from Milton High School in 1947. She attended Lasell Junior College in Auburndale, now Lasell College.
At age 18, she met Charles LaMarca. The couple married in 1952 after a four-year courtship.
When her husband left to serve in the Korean War, Mrs. LaMarca began working as a medical secretary, taking autopsy notes for a forensic pathologist. She also worked at Milton Hospital.
After her husband completed his military service, they lived in Allston for a year before moving to Holbrook. When her husband lost his job in 1958, Mrs. LaMarca returned to work and he stayed at home with their two daughters. Several years later her husband bought a laundry and dry cleaning business in Belmont.
In the early 1970s, Mrs. LaMarca began working as a medical secretary in the cardiac unit of MGH, where she scheduled patient appointments, handled physician referrals, and processed lab results. ''She just liked being with the patients and with the doctors," her husband said. ''She was truly selfless."
In 1975, they moved to Maine and began volunteering at the Hyde School in Bath, which their daughter attended. Inspired by the family-based, character-building curriculum at the school, Mrs. LaMarca helped establish the Family Learning Center, a three-day workshop for parents and their children. Her work also influenced her decision to continue her education and earn a degree.
Upon returning to the Boston area in 1979, the couple purchased a dilapidated, five-story townhouse on Beacon Hill. While Mrs. LaMarca attended school and worked at MGH, her husband restored the property. The idea to create a ''home away from home" for foreign patients developed from Mrs. LaMarca's daily contact with social workers at the hospital.
''She felt a hotel was kind of a cold place relationship-wise, especially if you are going through some trauma," said her husband.
Patients and relatives would spend anywhere from a couple days to several months, depending upon the severity of their condition, said her husband.
''Even though we often couldn't speak the language, we could communicate with the people and that made it worth it," said her husband.
Mrs. LaMarca graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1984. The couple then moved to Cape Cod and continued renovating houses before retiring in 1986.
She continued filling in for vacationing secretaries at MGH until the late 1980s and volunteered as a mentor with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Cape Cod and tutored pupils in math and reading at Barnstable-West Barnstable Elementary School.
''I always admired the way she did her job and approached life," Ruskin said. ''She was a terrific human being."
In addition to her husband, Mrs. LaMarca leaves two daughters, Cathy LaMarca Gibson of Barrington, R.I., and Lynne LaMarca Heinrich of Berkeley, Calif.; and a brother, John Dobbie of Quincy.
Funeral services have been held. Burial was private.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.