Inés Salter Martin

On Father’s Day, our amazing granddaughter Inés was among the largest graduating class on record at Stanford University’s 2025 Commencement. The combined brilliance of the graduates was indeed awe inspiring, but for her family and grandparents, Inés stood out and her inner light shown the brightest. From the moment I first met her, she was singular, and now at 23 she gives me hope that her generation will be a force for good that will save the world.

She and her father Hayden spent three days in Nevada City following her graduation visiting her American grandfather Abuelo Kit, our cat Peekay, her Aunt Heidi, and me—her Abuela Cathy. Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, Inés is a beautiful mix of her California born father and her Spanish mother Ana. Over the years, Kit and I traveled as often as we could to Spain to visit with our three grandchildren Nico, Inés and Catalina.  And when they were in their teens, they each experienced Missouri country life at Boomerang Creek. It was where they each harvested vegetables from our garden and made their first pumpkin pie and loaf of Stephenson’s Apple Farm banana bread from scratch.

Inés has never ceased to explore the world around her and beyond, and she continually tests her considerable athletic abilities. As a teenager, she learned to ice skate with a grace that speaks volumes of her beauty and character.  Because her father played volleyball in high school and college in the United States, she and her sister Catalina were a formidable duo on their own high school volleyball team in Madrid.  While studying for a semester at Cambridge University, she made the women’s rowing team that winter never having rowed before in her life. In addition, she is also a formidable skier and runner.

There is so much that I love about my granddaughter Inés and so much to be proud of.  Her athletic accomplishments are all in addition to her academic brilliance as a serious scholar. She speaks Spanish, French, and English fluently and in a manner that is a lovely modest blend of the three languages.  Looking back on pictures of visits with her over the years, she has grown ever more lovely and at 5’10” is now taller than me.

After she left last week, I found a note that she wrote in August 2017 after visiting Boomerang Creek.  I will treasure it forever.  She wrote—

Dear Abuela Cathy,

Thank you for everything you have done for me!  Every jacket, t-shirt,…was a new discovered treasure.  I have loved spending time with you baking, and exploring your studio and looking at old family pictures.  You have filled perfectly that gap of not knowing my American grandmother that well, but now I know that you are a wonderful and always interesting to be around person.  Thank you so so much.  I love you. 

Sincerely, Inés.

While attending a Salter family reunion in Nevada City two summers ago, I had the fun of sharing dresses, hats, scarves, and jewelry from my travels with my two beautiful granddaughters and telling them the stories of their origins as they dressed up and posed in each outfit.  This trip, Hayden, Inés and I visited Kit each day at the Lodge where he resides in nearby Grass Valley and as it was quite sunny and hot, we all had festive straw hats on while eating lunch on the patio. 

The morning Inés and Hayden left last week, she got up early and went for a run in our Sierra Nevada hilly neighborhood knowing that she had a long day and night of travel ahead of her with layovers in Amsterdam and Frankfurt before her afternoon flight out of San Francisco arrived in Madrid. As I watered the pots on our deck, she stood tall at the railing above me, fully energized from her run and looking like a million in her Stanford tee shirt.  That’s our Inés!  Strong, confident, beautiful in every way, and ready to take on the world.