Sylvia Martinez Fratti

February 17, 1940 – December 9, 2019

Born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America. Preceded in Glory by her beloved parents, Emilio Martinez Barrientos, and Dolores Fratti de Martinez, and her siblings, Elsa Margarita de Cervantes, and Ovidio Martinez Fratti.  She attended Colegio Guadalupano, a private all girl Catholic School of the Holy Order of Daughters of Mary founded in 1927.  This institution along with the vehement example of her generous parents, encouraged her posterior community service efforts.  In 1955 she attended Belmot High School in Los Angeles, California as an international student for the purpose of having English language immersion exposure.  She returned to El Salvador to finish high school and various Home Economics courses. Then proceeded to perform administrative support work at the National Office of Trademarks and Patents in the National Palace of El Salvador now located in the historic district of the city. At age twenty-four she married her beloved high school sweetheart and she happily became a conscientious homemaker, loving wife and devoted mother to her two daughters. 

She was a patron and volunteer worker at The Divina Providencia Cancer Hospital where her most impactful role was in the founding and building of the hospital’s church. She was an active member of The Ladies of Charity Society, a private charitable organization, where she served for many years in helping the displaced Salvadoran families from The Honduras-El Salvador War of 1969 among many other projects. In the early to mid 1980’s she served victims of multiple natural disasters mostly hurricanes and earthquakes, and most remarkably held a voluntary leadership role in the successful 1977- 1979 government initiative with private citizens to distribute milk and toys to families in remote rural areas at the onset of The Civil War which affected the country for fourteen years to come. She was an active member of The Salvadoran Association of Civil Engineers’ Wives, and a helpful parishioner of Iglesia El Carmen of The Carmelite Catholic Order, two organizations which also offered her multiple opportunities to serve the community.

She was a loving and supportive mother who guided her daughters through her living example of righteousness, honesty, courage, generousity and her strong faith in our Lord. She always acknowledged The Lord’s great providence and many blessings on her. Her faith grew stronger as she overcame challenging obstacles during a civil war which shook up the foundations of law and order in her homeland, all while raising a family and becoming the sole survivor of her closest extended family. She was a strong defender of her parents’ legacy and proud representative of her family’s Italian- Spanish heritage and honorable name. She taught her daughters to admire, love and respect “The Great Country of Laws”, which is what she called The United States, where she often loved to travel for leisure with the family or visit her daughters while in college.

In 1994 after careful consideration of compromised personal safety and the risks of a post-war time in El Salvador, she made the hard decision to make her once second home, her permanent one as she took residency in Charlotte, North Carolina where she fully relocated. Now her beloved second country, would become her first. A world traveler and admirer of conservative American values, she especially loved the Carolinas because she identified with its Christian values and its loving and gentle people. She was proud to live in the “Bible Belt” she would say. A year and a half ago, she moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to be closer to her beloved family.

She was first and foremost a dedicated and loving mother and a truly adoring grandmother to Don III, Joseph and Isaac.  She loved her role as our beloved “Aby”, which is how her grandchildren called her as short for “Abuelita” (Granny in Spanish). She was an exemplary and loyal daughter, wife, devoted mother, grandmother, and loyal friend. Enormously neat and organized and a gracious hostess committed to etiquette and protocol. Faithful admirer of the beauty of God’s natural creation, avid swimmer and skillful tender of her tropical plants. A natural leader who loved her mocha coffee and a good strawberry ice cream with a silly and playful sense of humor and clever wit. She will be sorely missed and dearly remembered by many.

She is survived by her daughters, Sylvia Carolina Rivera (Caro), Elsa Rivera Evans (Sally), her son-in law, Don Tolbert Evans, Jr., and her grandsons, Don Tolbert Evans III, Joseph Nathaniel Evans and Isaac Perry Evans.

A Visitation and Chapel Service will be held from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Monday, December 16, 2019, at Andrews Mortuary Market Street Chapel; service officiated by Pastor Joe Sanatee.

Funeral Mass (Requiem) with the body present, will be held at 11:00 AM Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at St. Mark Catholic Church, officiated by Fr. Gregory Spencer.

Private Inurnment Blessing will be later at St. Mark Catholic Church Columbarium.