Jessica Chew Martin, who grew up in Montauk and lived in Larkhall, Scotland, with her husband, Robert, and three youngest children, died there on April 1 of complications related to Covid19. She was 42.
Ms. Martin was “wild and free and totally devoted to her husband and sweet children,” said her younger sister, Lauren Coen Iltis. “Her soul was larger than life, her laugh infectious, her teasing unbearable, her writing eloquent, her children precious and beautiful.”
Born in Gainesville, Fla., on Dec. 12, 1977, to Deborah and Thomas Edward Chew, she was just 5 months old when her father died in a tragic accident. When she was a young girl, her mother moved to Montauk, where she met and married Brian Coen, who became a father to her young daughter.
Ms. Martin, who was known as Jess or Jessie, was home schooled and graduated from Christian Liberty Academy. As a teenager she started a newsletter for local home-schoolers, and the subject was one she remained passionate about her whole life.
“Jess loved all things living,” her family wrote. She worked at Rita’s Stable in Montauk as a young girl, gardened, and babysat. “She was a natural nurturer,” her family said, and had even saved her little brother’s life as a girl by performing the Heimlich maneuver on him while he was choking, her mother recalled.
A writer, a public speaker, and a communicator, she was “inspirational to all who met or knew her, always there to listen and advise,” her mother wrote.
A free spirit, she “didn’t always follow a conventional path,” her family said. Over the years she had lived in Hawaii, Ireland, Qatar, and Scotland. She met the love of her life, Robbie Martin, while in Ireland. They were married on Sept. 2, 2011, and eventually settled in Scotland to raise and home school their three daughters, Tilly, 12, Abi, 10, and Ruby, 7. She also had three older children, Brian Kelley, 22, and Cierra Kelley, 16, of Dover, Del., and Shane Kelley, 19, of Groton, Conn.
In Scotland she started a fibromyalgia support group and was active in a home school group.
A wake was held in Scotland on April 17, with neighbors and friends lining the street to pay their respects as her husband and children drove past. Candles were lit in many houses throughout the world to honor her passing on the day of her wake.
Eventually, a memorial service and celebration of her life will be held in Montauk.
Friends remember her as “a beautiful, brave, intelligent, free-spirited soul whose love and compassion touched everyone she met,” her family wrote.
In addition to her husband, children, and parents, Ms. Martin is survived by her sister, Ms. Coen Iltis of Beverly, Mass, a brother, Michael Coen of the Bronx, a stepson, David Martin of Bray, Ireland, and her 95-year-old maternal grandmother, Theresa Neumann of Rhinebeck, N.Y. She also leaves several nieces, nephews, and cousins in the United States and Ireland.
A GoFundMe campaign has been established for her husband and children; it can be found by searching “Jess ChewMartin” at gofundme.com.
