Lover of photography, music, swimming, rollerblading, walking, and meeting new people, my mom lived a life full of activity, adventure, curiosity, and love.

I loved hearing her stories of working as a photographer and journalist in the 70s for various newspapers, including The Philadelphia Tribune. She covered track and field in Europe, US race relations, and even had a press pass to an Aretha Franklin concert sewn in the inside of her leather jacket. Once she had children, she shifted to nursing and spent the rest of her career serving others as an RN.

In her late-40s, she took up rollerblading and impressively was a self-taught skater. She loved to do laps around Balboa Lake. When I was in college, she brought her skates to visit me in NYC and went 20 miles round trip from Morningside Heights to the Statue of Liberty!

Some of my fondest memories are of our time together in New York. When I had ACL surgery my sophomore year, she flew out to care for me and to attend my classes so I wouldn’t fall behind, taking detailed notes and asking questions to my professors on my behalf. When I was teaching high school in East Harlem, she visited my class every year. I always made her part of the lesson. Students read her newspaper articles and interviewed her, and she reviewed story ideas with my journalism class. She was always up for a new experience or challenge!

She could walk for hours and never get tired. She would make an adventure out of it, taking pictures and talking to new people along the way. When we went to the Tribeca Film Festival together, and at her insistence, we walked from 125th street to 14th street. She photographed buildings, trees, crowds of people, and me (always in action, never posed). We got to the show and had to wait in line for an hour. She made friends with everyone in her vicinity, learned about their life paths, and even received free panel interview passes. She was truly interested in people’s stories and experiences and knew that creating connections with others was her super power.

She is the most open-minded person I have ever known. I greatly valued that I could talk to her about everything, and I always knew she would be supportive. She knew all of the details, and she was always there to help me to navigate.

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