AUGUSTA — An excited chatter rang out as a crowd of over 100 gathered in front of a shrouded monument at Mill Park. They were all there to see Martha Ballard.

As the tarp was pulled away, a 12-foot-tall statue of the famed local midwife and healer, who delivered more than 800 babies in the late 18th century, was revealed, gazing out over the Kennebec River that she once called home.

“Martha was a warrior,” Glee Ballard, Martha Ballard’s seventh great-granddaughter said. “We’re all warriors, we were raised to be warriors, it’s in the blood.”

Glee Ballard said Martha Ballard’s spirit lives on, and the new memorial will serve as a lasting reminder of her legacy.

“This woman deserved it. She deserves every honor she can get because it (was) hard, hard work for 27 years,” Glee Ballard said.

For almost three decades, Martha Ballard kept a diary — an unusual practice for women of her time — detailing her life and work and providing a valuable historical account of life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The memorial, planned by the Mayor’s Committee for a Memorial of Martha Ballard at Mill Park, has been in the works for almost six years after facing delays during the construction of the statue.

Several of Ballard’s descendants attended the event: her seventh great-granddaughters Glee and Ruth Ballard and her eighth great-granddaughter Gen. Diane Dunn, the Maine adjutant general and commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management. All three relatives also served on the mayor’s committee for the memorial.

Designed by Augusta native Stanley Tupper, the statue features Ballard with a baby in her arms overlooking the Kennebec River less than 1,000 feet from where her home once stood on Bond Brook. Tupper completed the project free of charge on behalf of the Augusta community.

The body of the sculpture is supported by a skirt of curved beams with vines planted at the base. Over time the vines are expected to grow and climb along the beams, creating a full skirt of greenery.

Next to the statue is an herb garden honoring Ballard’s work as a medicinal herbalist. Plants that Ballard used and referenced in her diary are planted in the garden next to signs displaying passages from her diary.

Ballard’s diary sat in obscurity for many decades until historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich found it and wrote the Pulitizer Prize-winning biography, “A Midwife’s Tale,” that was later turned into a PBS American Experience documentary.

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“They forgot her then, but we’re not going to forget her now,” Larry Fleury, chair of the committee for the memorial said during the unveiling.

The Southern Maine Nurse Honor Guard sat in front of the statue as it was unveiled and placed roses at its base, honoring Ballard’s legacy. The Honor Guard pays tribute to nurses who have led life-long careers devoted to nursing.

Mayor Mark O’Brien highlighted Ballard’s impact in the Augusta community and beyond.

“For generations, public monuments have told us who mattered,” O’Brien said. “Today, we have an opportunity to broaden that story, to recognize that the contributions of women, caregivers, working people and ordinary citizens are worthy of being remembered in public places.”

Because Marabella is shy, she’s often overlooked. But Marabella doesn’t overlook anything—not the puffy clouds, or the birds in the trees, not even her dancing shadows. When she spies some flowers poking up from weeds in the schoolyard, she decides to draw them big enough for others to notice. Chalk in hand, she fills the BLANK WALL with bright spectacular drawings of the simple moments she has seen, which inspires her classmates to notice the world around them.

A new mural celebrating Lewiston’s diverse immigrant community was unveiled Friday in the heart of downtown.

Commissioned by L-A Arts, the mural was created by artists Rachel and Ryan Adams as a welcoming symbol for migrants and a reflection of the city’s cultural diversity.

The artwork was inspired by a quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

Ryan Adams said the artists wanted the mural to reflect the people who call Lewiston home.

“Whenever we paint large-scale pieces in other people’s communities, we like to get a sense of the folks that are there because you want to have people represented in the work that is within their spaces,” Adams said. “We hope that it’s a reminder to people that the convergence of different cultures and peoples makes such a beautiful new thing.”

Organizers say the mural is intended to celebrate the city’s diverse population and foster a sense of belonging for residents and newcomers alike.

Maya asks where are the statues of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary Macleod Bethune. Who Needs A Statue? answers some of her questions and like Maya. I ask more questions about statues in DC and throughout the USA.

Iroro Tanshi