Melissa Sue Martin, age 30, died peaceably Thursday, Aug. 21 at her home in Ellis, Ks.

She was born January 26, 1978 in Lyons, Ks. She was raised in Ellis where she attended grade school and high school.

At age 16 Melissa was involved in a single car accident, receiving a traumatic brain injury that left her in a persistent vegetative state for 14 years. During that time, she lived at home and was cared for by her loving family: parents, Ken ("Beans") and Stephanie (Leiker) Martin; two sisters and their families, Dave, Nicole, and Maizlyn Hammond, and Karl and Jenifer Wood and Kayla Martin; grandmothers Bessie Leiker and Willena Martin; and her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Many people loved and helped take care of Melissa, but most of all her aunt, Tamara Leiker, who was her "other mom" for the past nine years.

We will love and miss her as we wait to see her again in heaven where she can now walk, and talk, and smile again.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Ellis Baptist Church. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Wasinger-Keithley Funeral Chapel, Ellis.