Suzanne Fife plays the part of Martha Washington outlining the life of her husband and their years at Mount Vernon and New York during the annual George Washington Tea, Feb. 21.

By Pearl Cantrell
Monitor Staff Writer
SEVEN POINTS–Besides a wonderful spread of finger sandwiches, fruit and vegetable platters, sweets and choice of coffee or tea from a silver service, the annual George Washington Tea highlighted the American Revolution – a time of endurance, courage and character needed to support a people’s hunger for freedom. None epitomized this more than George Washington, whose birthday is Feb. 22, marked as President’s Day.
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution – Sarah Maples Chapter uses the observance to recognize those among us who day-in and day-out demonstrate exemplary public service and the youth who participate in the organization’s essay contests.
This year was no different.
Honorees for the Excellence in Community Service award are Mabank Fire Department member and newspaper photographer Fred Carter and Rotary Club of Cedar Creek Lake President Bill Burnett, formerly leader of the Mabank Area Good Samaritans food pantry. Youth Citizenship Award winner Jason Meelkop of Mabank High School is joined by Good Citizen Award winners classmate Brooklyn Story and Kemp High School student Ariana McDonald. Essay winners include eighth grader Colin Loudan in American history and Maci Ann McDowell, the Christopher Columbus essay winner.
To top off hearing the accolades of the honorees and recognizing them with awards was a quaint outline of the life of the father of the American nation as told by his dear wife, Martha. Suzanne Fife brought the colonial woman to life with much courtesy and charm. She told of her husband’s impressions of young men like Patrick Henry, her husband’s belief that force (a regular standing army) was needed to maintain liberty and how when at the end of a long desperate struggle the American army succeeded in surrounding the army of Cornwallis, the colonists wanted to make George a king in 1784. “Well that seemed like a wasted effort to replace one king with another one,” she said were his sentiments. She told that right after the war, her husband got to live the life of a country gentleman for barely five years before he was called upon to serve as the nation’s first president. At the inauguration she brought the scene before the eyes of her audience of her husband answering the oath-bound question with a “So help me, God” and bowed to kiss the Bible, setting an example for every president coming after him.
Finally, she portrayed his final days at Mount Vernon, as only an intimate partner can. His last words to her: “Tis well. Have me decently buried in no longer than two days.”
He was a wonderful man, a great husband and an inspiring leader, she said. “Please remember him as the commander of the army that won the nation’s independence from the most powerful military force in the world; the president of the convention that wrote our constitution and the one who served as the new nation’s first president. Let us not forget George Washington, who was the father of our country.”