Martha June Sizemore lived until 1971, dying at age 64. She kept her promise to baby Rose. When Rose was 11, Martha found a way to send her to live with a distant relative in Ohio—told Clem that Rose had gone to school, which was partially true.
Martha sacrificed her relationship with her own daughter to save Rose from the fate Martha had suffered. Rose grew up in Ohio, went to school, married at 22 (not 12), had children of her own, lived a normal life.
Rose never knew until 1970—one year before Martha’s death—that her mother had been 12 when she married, 12 when Rose was born, that Martha had been a child bride herself. Martha told Rose the truth on her deathbed, crying, saying: “I was 12 when they sold me to Clem. I was 12 when you were born. I sent you away to save you from what happened to me. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I sent you away. But I’d do it again. I’d do anything to make sure you got the childhood I didn’t get. Did you have a good childhood, Rose? Did you get to be a child?”
Rose held her dying mother’s hand and said: “Yes, Mama. I had a wonderful childhood. Because of you. Because you protected me.” Martha smiled, closed her eyes, and died. She’d kept her promise. Rose had gotten a childhood. Martha had sacrificed everything—her daughter’s presence, her own happiness, decades of separation—to give Rose what she never had.
The girl who had laughed at snow at age 12, pregnant and married and already destroyed, had saved her daughter from the same destruction. That was Martha June Sizemore’s legacy—not survival, but protection. Not living for herself, but ensuring her daughter could live the life Martha never got.
