Queen Mother was such a beautiful and special part of our community at BeLoved. She shared with her heart, ALWAYS!

She loved to cook for the community. We will always remember her dancing in front of the oven when she opened it to find 2 golden brown turkeys to feed our neighbors on Thanksgiving day. We remember how she had a group of community kids mesmerized as she told them a story. She walked the neighborhood, greeting neighbors, cultivating plants, and caring for Mother Earth.

We hope she continues her great work now by INSPIRING YOU!

Martin was as Carolina as one could be. Born and raised in Charlotte and a Tarheel to his core, he loved the cultures of the Carolinas. His parents hailed from SC and their hometowns loomed large in his youth.  Martin loved basketball, BBQ and bluegrass…and Neil Young.  Moreso, he loved people and their stories.  His joy for life and generous spirit was evident in everyday conversations about wine, concerts or maybe an ode to the perfect hushpuppy or the finer points of smoking a good pork butt.  Your day couldn’t help but be brighter after a visit or conversation with him.  

Martin’s spirit led him to leave Charlotte after high school. He moved to Boston, enjoying music festivals and live shows, returning in his mid-twenties. He found his home in Asheville, where he lived for more than 30 years, much of that time as an account representative for fine wines.  Martin thrived in the wine business, because of his love of people and the opportunities to introduce and educate them about wine.  He loved Asheville and the surrounding towns, especially the people that lived there.   

In 2017, Martin returned to Charlotte to be close to family. He joined The Laurel Market as Beverage Manager where he quickly found his home. It wasn’t long before the regulars christened Martin the “Ambassador of Laurel Market,” a moniker he enthusiastically embraced. The Laurel provided the perfect place for his love of good wine, good coffee and good conversation with people from all walks of life. He felt deeply that each interaction with someone held a lesson and made his life richer.  What he didn’t know was the impact these moments had on others. He was everyone’s greatest cheerleader.  A close friend of over 40 years described Martin as “Sometimes perhaps a little disheveled. He was the kinda guy that women wanted to take care of and men wanted to sit down and have a drink with. He never met a stranger, only friends that hadn’t met him yet.”

Martin’s legacy is one of kindness and grace, of boundless optimism and undying loyalty.

Matthew McInnis cared. He had a beautiful, uninhibited, non-judgmental way of seeing people and connecting with them. He proudly lived a minimalist lifestyle and challenged the philosophy of modern-day consumerism. Matthew was very critical of and outspoken about self-serving institutional bureaucracies and how we all need to do better collectively as a community. 

He searched out ways, small and large, to help people around him. He would often pull off the road to give a meal to a less fortunate traveler and opened his home many times for shelter and safe haven. Matthew frequently took his children to the camps down by the river to offer help, as it was important to him that his children understood the worth of a person is not based on socio-economic status.  

Matthew leaves behind, the love of his life, Erin Ackerman; their three children, Connal, Maclan and Oonagh McInnis; his parents Tom and Pauline McInnis, stepmother Kathleen McInnis; two brothers, David and Liam McInnis; and his sister, Kaitlyn McInnis-Newman.

The Beloved Asheville mission mirrors who Matthew was and will continue to be, through his legacy of remembering the less fortunate people in our community.

Edward was a devoted family man with a very caring soul. Besides being a loving and devoted father to his three sons, he was also a father figure to many others. Friends and strangers alike enjoyed his company and he will be missed by many.  

He leaves behind his three sons, Timothy, Brian and Warren, his three daughter-in-laws, Jan, Susan and Stefani, four grandchildren, Austin, Dylan, Ben and Hudson and his two great-grandchildren Lawson and Waylon.