Local Women

Back in the fall of 2016, before casting her vote for Hillary Clinton, Adrienne Martini, a knitter, a runner, a mom, and a resident of rural Otsego County in snowy upstate New York, knew who her senators were, wasn’t too sure who her Congressman was, and had only vague inklings about who her state reps were. And after the 2017 presidential inauguration, she reached out to Dave, a friend of a friend, who was involved in the Otsego County Democratic Party. Maybe she could help out with phone calls or fundraising? But Dave’s idea was: she should run for office. Someone had to do it.

Women didn’t always have the rights and the possibilities that they do today. In the past, the basic human rights such as the right to vote, the right to reproduce, the right to work, to hold public office, to enter into legal contracts, to have equal rights in family law, the right to education, the right to be free from sexual violence, the right to own property, and so on were not available to women.

It is hard not to fall in love with fashion plate Mary Christiana Hettler who gives up the high society of Chicago to ultimately move to rural Nevada, one of the bleakest sites in the nation to serve as an Episcopal Deaconess. Upon landing in the mining town, known primarily as a murder capital during int heyday, Mary Christiana doesn't give an inch. She transforms a dusty, dingy "icebox" of a house into one that becomes the heart of the Episcopal community with hot pink rooms, exotic flowers and a rolling, grassy yard.