Margaret Mary Martin

Margaret Mary “Mimi” Martin, who touched countless lives as a nurse, counselor, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, neighbor and friend, died Thursday, July 10, at the Wayne home where she lived for nearly 55 years. She was 86.

Mimi’s children were with her when she passed, which was really the only way it could be. Mimi was the magnet that drew them home again and again, from points across the country and even the globe.

Time with her was precious, and always memorable, often involving laugh-out-loud stories she shared while playing a board game as an Eagles or Phillies game aired in the background.

Mimi was born in Delaware County, the eldest of John and Frances McLaughlin’s five children. She grew up in Drexel Hill and Lansdowne, and their summer house in Margate is where she developed her lifelong passion for days on the beach. (And too many freckles, she’d complain.)

She graduated from Villa Maria Academy, then earned nursing degrees at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital and the Catholic University of America. It was there she met David Martin, a law school student from Buffalo, NY. They married in 1962. Raising six children became her full-time job and one at which she excelled.

Dave died in 2006. As always, Mimi kept going. She never missed an important event or milestone for her family, even after being diagnosed with cancer. She reveled in lunches with her siblings, long calls and visits with lifelong friends, and the fun Mahjong gatherings where she took pains not to win too much, or so she said. It was also routine to hear Mimi report that on a whim – and only after she had determined there would be no bay breeze – she had thrown a beach chair and a book in her car and day-tripped it to the shore.

For more than five decades, Mimi was a committed member and supporter of Al-Anon. In 1972, she helped to launch a weekly Delaware County group meeting that still exists. She also traveled to international conventions and trekked regularly to New York to volunteer for its World Service Organization. That experience helped spark a second career as a family counselor, including at Mirmont Treatment Center.

Survivors include her children: Cammy Krim (Mike), Faith McGarrity (Mike), J.P. (Nicole), David, and Kathleen Omar (Sharif); grandchildren Mikaela, Maggie, Jack, Sophia, Lidia, Luke and Davey; a brother, Jim McLaughlin; and a sister, Chris Wendt. Her daughter Julia predeceased her, as did her brothers Frank and Jay McLaughlin.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 am Friday, July 18, at St. Monica Catholic Church, 635 First Ave. in Berwyn with a viewing IN CHURCH from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, with interment to follow at Calvary Cemetery in West Conshohocken.

In lieu of flowers, donations are welcome for the David and Mimi Martin scholarship fund at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. The website is: https://www.law.edu/support-cua-law/students-scholarships.html