For those who may not have already heard, my dear granddaughter, Melissa Martinez, died late Monday night Dec 27 or early Tuesday morning Dec 28, 2010.
Melissa was a beautiful, sweet, intelligent, responsible and independent young woman of 17 living with her mother, Rebecca Snook, in New Orleans near where we are also living now.
Melissa was a good student, had a job at a local restaurant, and had made many strong and wonderful friendships both in Scotts Valley, California, and in New Orleans.
As we best understand it, Melissa was in a warehouse building in New Orleans on a very cold night, with some artist and musician friends, a building without proper heating, and some of the young adults there had built a fire in a barrel, which apparently led to their asphyxiation by carbon monoxide poisoning before the building then caught fire and was destroyed.
There was a fair amount of incorrect information about the situation and about Melissa in the first few news articles, but that seems to be being corrected now.
A memorial service for Melissa will be held in California on Tuesday January 4th at 4:30 p.m. at Oakwood Chapel 3301 Paul Sweet Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95065. All are welcome to attend. Please spread the word.
A graveside service will be held in New Orleans on Saturday, Jan 8.
If you are friend or family of Melissa and are not already on the email list that Rebecca is using to send out announcements from New Orleans, please let me know and I’ll try to get you onto it.
Rebecca and Melissa Christmas 2010
