Margaret Slaughterback's Obituary
Margaret Ruth Chambers Slaughterback
March 30, 1948-April 22, 2013
As my dearest friend, these are a few of the things I know about Margy,
Margy was a warrior. She lived her life in a quiet, uncompromising manner fighting for her right to be understood and share fleeting moments of joy. She was a gifted pianist but was plagued by forces unseen by the rest of us who scared her gift away and made her life torture. She was judged as being “different” and was institutionalized to get her out of sight and out of mind. Those that should be loved the most are often the hardest to love because we fear what we don’t understand and so she was alone most of her life while the rest of us battled on with our own existence.
She should have been bitter and hard, but amazingly, Margy was like the piece of coal that under tremendous pressure had turned into a diamond.
Even to the end, when cancer did its worst, she never complained nor took any of the smallest kindness or attempt to help her for granted. We often talked about the true meaning of Christianity. She had distilled it down to the Golden precept of Jesus, i.e., DO UNTO OTHERS…that’s how she lived. That’s how she died.
Strong-willed and resolute, in 2012 when she discovered her cancer had returned she kicked a 40+ year HEAVY smoking habit “cold turkey.” Margy was steadfast in her belief that she was going to beat cancer with a positive attitude. After she moved from her apartment to Chambers in mid-December 2012, she realized that she was losing weight rapidly and her trips to various doctors were not encouraging but she was so sure they were wrong that she convinced us that she must know something they don’t. As I was reading to her one night, she announced to me “this is the end. It’s over.” Five days later, she was dead.
Margy loved roses. In her honor, we will be planting a rose garden. If you wish to bring or send flowers, bring a live rose for her memorial.
Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home.
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