High School

Annette’s formative years played a significant role in shaping the remarkable woman she would become.

High School Circle Remembrance by Nick Pappas

My name is Nick Pappas, and I’d like to thank both Emre and the Martin family for this opportunity to speak to you all this morning. I’m humbled and honored to represent some of Annette’s oldest friends, whom she’s known since 8th and 9th grade.

And I can tell you, that circle of friends was epic. We all met as freshmen, but no one can remember when. We lived in each other’s basements… the Martins’ included. We went to football games. We hung out at the pool. We ate lunch together. We got in trouble. Sometimes a lot of trouble. And Annette was the beautiful, funny, dorky, brilliant heartbeat of the group.

It should come as no surprise that she was the adventurous one. That key friend that came up with new exploits. Once, she came to me with the crazy idea for the two of us to crash a neighboring high school’s homecoming dance where we had a bunch of friends. Who thinks of that?! But she was clear: “Nick, we’re just going as friends… and I’m wearing pants… I don’t want to deal with a dress”. “Whatever you say Annette.” Ironically, all our parents regarded Annette as the most sensible one in our group. If they only knew.

High school is a challenging time for almost everyone, but we all deeply admired Annette. She seemed superhuman.

She did it all: school, sports, extracurriculars, fun. She was friends with EVERYONE. And she succeeded at everything. She wasn’t perfect… but she was the nicest of us, she was the smartest of us, she was the most adventurous of us, she was the best of us.

After high school, she was that LIFELONG friend that kept us together. Annette never let geographical distance get in the way. UVA, Boston, New York., D.C. – we went to visit her, or she came to us. Sometimes months or years would go by between connecting, but with lifelong friends, there’s a special connection, where you can pick up right where you left off. It was funny, when she called and left me a voicemail to tell me she was coming back for the reunion, she left me the most Annette message possible, saying “Hi Nick, it’s Annette Martin”. I immediately called her back and yelled, “Yes! I know who you are!” When our friend Cheman visited her in Cambodia, Annette dropped everything to show her around Phnom Phen. On the way to meeting her, she was mugged while driving on her pink moped. But Annette wasn’t going to let a little thing like being robbed, nearly thrown off a moving moped, losing her bag, her wallet, her credit cards, her work computer, AND her ID, stop her from keeping a scheduled coffee date with her friend.

Several of you have asked about her last night at our high school reunion events. I can tell you she was surrounded by friends, and people that admired her. She was smiling and laughing. There were lots of hugs all around. We got to see the halls of our high school, reminisce about our old teachers, watch the football team play, and see our dear friend Eliza coach the very same cheerleading squad they were both a part of. Later that night at the restaurant, she was so completely surrounded by people, I thought she had left. But, in true Annette fashion, she stayed to soak it all in. She was so happy to see everyone. She spoke about her love of Mozambique. She talked about her dad and brother who she was excited to see later that weekend. But mostly she talked about the two greatest loves of her life—her boys, Troy and Phoenix: what they were doing, how they were adapting from a life in Mozambique to a life in Jamaica, and how she was helping them adjust.

On behalf of Cheman, Eliza, Jennifer, Julianne, Laura, and all those that helped me with our words today, we’re totally devastated by our loss, and the loss to Ray, and Greg, and Emre, and Troy, and Phoenix, and everyone who knew her. But we’re somewhat sustained by the knowledge that we are all better people because Annette was part of our lives.

Annette’s Circles

High School

High School Moments