Mae's Story

Ethel Mae (Robertshaw) Leslie (26 Feb 1931 - 29 Mar 2024) took her exit from this world in the usual way that she lived her life: on her own terms. After receiving her cancer diagnosis five months ago, Mae decided not to undergo chemotherapy. Instead, she died peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by family, on Good Friday. She achieved as close to a perfect death as anyone could hope for, and nobody who knew her would be surprised to know it. If anyone could manifest a perfect death by force of sheer will, it would have been Mae.

Mae was my maternal grandmother. She instilled in me a love for genealogy and history, among other things. It is because of her that so much of our family history is known to me - history which I plan to share on this platform. Perhaps anticipating this precise moment, Mae wrote down her own story. It ends before her cancer diagnosis and therefore does not cover the last few months of her incredibly long life, but it is otherwise very thorough and more importantly, it is what she wanted the world to know about herself, told in her own voice.

You can download the full PDF of Mae's Story below:

Mae’s Story - Full.pdf

Download PDF • 50.38MB

Mae's obituary can be found here.

Gram was a devout Christian and gave all of her favorite grandchildren bells for Christmas this last year, so you had better believe she'll be getting her wings. Those of us still on Earth are fortunate to have had so much time with her and those who knew her heart will miss her very much.