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Stubborn: Edith Macefield's Seattle home, around which a five-storey shopping complex was built. She refused a $1m offer to move and died in her home in 2008

Edith's home became a symbol of resistance

Pick on someone your own size! Why an elderly lady with a big fighting spirit refused to sell her home to developers

When Barry Martin took on the role of construction supervisor of a huge Seattle shopping complex, he never imagined that he would end up caring for Edith Mcefield, a stubborn 84-year-old who had refused $1 million from the developer to move house. Here he describes their unlikely friendship

She looked out of the window. ‘Where would I go? I don’t have any family and this is my home. My mother died here, on this very couch. I came back to America from England to take care of her. She made me promise I would let her die at home and not in some facility, and I kept that promise. And this is where I want to die. Right in my own home. On this couch.’

She seemed so frail and so strong at the same time. So vulnerable and needy and yet so fiercely independent. I was moved by what she had told me and felt strangely protective of her. It was such a simple request. At another meeting the developers offered to bring someone in to take pictures of her house so that they could build an exact replica somewhere else. They mentioned the $1 million [over £600,000] again and said they would buy a new house for her. ‘I’m not sure why I need $1 million,’ said Edith. ‘If I get sick it probably won’t cover the medical bills and if I don’t get sick I don’t need it. And if you’re going to make the new place look just like this one, well this place already looks just like this one, so why should I bother?’


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