by Gretchen Wing

A 45-year marriage. Two successful daughters. Eight grandchildren. Sounds like the definition of a happy extended family. But Mary Jenison isn’t done; she keeps extending, here on Lopez and on the other side of the world.

An impulsive decision to tour Thailand 19 years ago, with husband Richard and four other Lopezians, led to a love affair with that country, and 13 return trips. On the island of Phuket, Mary established friendships, not only with their guide, but with a taxi driver, and especially with a street-food vendor, Hannisah, whom Mary calls her “soul-sister of the world.”

When Hannisah’s only daughter, Fadella, yearned to go to college, Mary promised to raise the money to send her. Several years and Lopez fundraisers later, Fadella became the first member of her family to graduate from anything, let alone college. But how did a modest postal-worker-turned-cook become involved in such far-flung generosity, much less make it happen? Where did this dynamic large-heartedness come from?

The answer begins with Mary’s “idyllic childhood” in Seattle, with industrious midwestern parents who fell in love with the country life of Lopez and bought a little summer cabin on Swifts Bay in 1959. When, after years of being a “summer kid” she met Richard Jenison, a fifth-generation Lopezian, and married him right out of high school, Mary found herself welcomed with open arms by the island community, and she embraced it right back. Her mom, June Sherer Forrester, and friend and neighbor Doris Nason were her inspirations, imbuing in Mary a deep love of service.

Hard work was another family trait. After two years in Seattle, Mary and Richard moved back to Lopez and “scratched our way through:” Richard fishing, Mary working at the Islander, then the “new” Islandale Store with Bill Carpenter. In 1978, with two small daughters, Mary took a part-time job with the Postal Service, which later morphed into full-time. Delivery hours were long —“I listened to every book on tape from the library,” Mary chuckles — but she made the job social too.

“I was a compassionate post-office person; if the mail built up over a couple of days, I would stop my car, go up and knock on the door … For some people, it was their only link.”

Mary loved her mail job and held it for 23 years.  Meanwhile, she committed herself to other types of service, such as 4H leadership, helping to start the Lopez Preschool Co-op and serving on the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts board.

Despite this dedication, Mary kept an element of impulsiveness. One day she found herself in Vita’s, asking Joyce Brinar for a job.

“It came over me all of a sudden: I have to do something different.” Joyce hired Mary right there, and she quit the post office, despite her love for it. “It was the worst financial decision I’ve ever made in my life, but you know? Sometimes money isn’t everything.”

Mary delighted in learning more about cooking from Joyce and from Bob Wood, former Bay Cafe owner, and loved selling food to people. She stayed at Vita’s for 10 years.

After such a leap, the travel impulse seems less surprising.

“Thailand called to us,” she says, joking about the contrast between “these two big, white Americans … and the people there who are … the size of my thigh.”

Befriending Hannisah the street vendor and offering to pay for Fadella’s education was right in line with Mary’s character. Her limited funds did not deter Mary; she had full faith in herself and her community, and they responded to her fundraising efforts.

“I don’t take credit for Fadella at all,” she said. “I spearheaded, but the Lopez community gave.”

When this Muslim girl from an island halfway around the world attained her college degree, Mary was filled with pride for both Fadella and Lopez.

“She is the most grateful young woman, and she cannot thank the Lopez community enough” for sponsoring her education. “I can’t help everyone in the world, but I’ve been able to help one person.”

The Jenisons’ kids and grandkids now refer to Hannisah and Fadella as “your other family.”

Local family may keep the Jenisons closer to Lopez for a bit. Two grandchildren, drawn to Lopez School, have opted to leave their mainland family temporarily to live with grandma and grandpa, and graduation is a year away for grandchild number two. True to character, Mary loves her “close grandma” role.

But when the nest re-empties, the world beckons. Beside Thailand, the Jenisons have been to Bali, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India, so who knows where next?

“There’s such a pull for both of us to southeast Asia, and I think it’s the relationships we’ve built with people,” she said.

Clearly, Mary Jennison is ready to extend the richness of her already-extended family as far as love can go.