Paper Clowns

When I was in my mid-20s I was not an ambitious person.  I happened to be looking through the want ads 1 day and I thought I  found an ideal job.  A company would send me the material to construct paper clowns, and I would send them back, and they would pay me $5 for each clown I constructed.  I thought I could also save money by not having to drive to work everyday.  Better yet, it sounded like a job I could manage while high on pot.  I eagerly told my mother about this opportunity, but she was not enthused.  Instead, she gently insisted I get a real job with insurance benefits and paid vacations.  I did go out and get a real job and went on to meet my wife indirectly through work.  My mom was rewarded with a granddaughter, and I avoided the ignominy of being the kind of adult who lives in their parents’ basement and never really grows up.  There are many ways my mom influenced my life, but this incident always comes to mind when I think about them.

This is my mom with my father, my younger sisters, and me in 1967.

My mother, Audrey Gelbart, was born on  August 5th, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio.  She was the product of a mixed marriage–her mother was a Yankee from New York and her father was a southerner from Georgia.  She grew up in Willoughby, Ohio with 2 brothers and a sister.  After graduating from high school she worked as a secretary in an hospital where she met my father who was a resident doctor there.  They married in 1961 and by 1966 they had 3 children.  She raised us while my father was busy working, and she always kept her house ultra clean.  She was a patient, sweet-tempered mother and grandmother, and a devoted wife.  She took good care of my father, especially during his many health crises, until his death in 2014.  My mom passed away on April 19th 2019.  We will miss her.

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