Birth date: Aug 17, 1935 Death date: Jun 6, 2018
Helen Ruth Green Glazer, age 82 of Gainesville, passed away Wednesday, June 6, 2018. She was born August 17, 1935 in Bronx, New York. Mrs. Glazer was a member of Congregation B’nai Israel. She is survived by her husband, Eli Glaze Read Obituary
Eulogy for Helen Ruth Green Glazer, הספד חנה רבקה בת פרל ואברהם לייב June 7th / 24th of Sivan 5778 ן תשע״חָ יוִ סְ כ״ג בּ By Cynthia Wroclawski, daughter For the past 5 1/2 years since mom was diagnosed with ( probable ) Frontotemporal Dementia, our family has mourned the gradual loss of our beautiful superwoman mother/wife. It has been painful to watch as her sharp wittedness, intellect and vast knowledge on any variety of subjects slowly disappear. But even when she experienced bouts of aggressive behavior, typical of FTD patients, her kind, sweet, loving personality ultimately shone through. On good days, she would greet her fellow veterans* and caregivers at the Lake City Florida Community Living Center where she resided over the last few years, with smiles, kisses and compliments: "You are absolutely beautiful," she would say with an ear-to-ear grin and penetrating eyes, as she passed them in the hallway during her strolls off the memory unit with her loving companions Barbara McCann, Bonnie Page who visited her on an almost daily basis. (*Mom was a retired military officer who served in the USA public health service) Dad has been a stalwart champion watching over mom and taking care to provide the her with the best quality of life possible under the circumstances. Researching her condition and course of treatments, he kept a vigilant eye and was actively involved in all of the difficult decisions that had to be made. Michele, Rosalind and I have been privileged to have been able to visit from Israel on a semi-annual basis since her diagnosis. We could not have done that without our Dad and the support of our families and places of work. Of the very many memories, conversations and traits of mom's that I hold dear in my heart there are three significant things I would like to share: 1. Mom's generous spirit and gift for making her friends and family feel special, appreciated and good about themselves. I will forever cherish the beautiful birthday cards and greetings that she sent to me, my children and husband. They are marked with her idiosyncratic cursive penmanship and carefully scripted words of praise and admiration for our accomplishments and accompanied by a crisp bill that would flutter out with a note "do/buy something nice for yourself – you deserve it".
2. Jewish faith, tradition and custom was paramount to mom. She loved to learn Torah, daven (pray) with her community. Shabbat dinner was a time to spend with family. I loved those family dinners and I loved the smell of mom's chicken and the taste of mom's chicken soup dripping from a hunk of sweet Hallah bread. Growing up, we children could go out and make plans on Friday nights, but only after our sacred shabbat dinner was over. Israel and Zionism were at the center of her Jewish identity and while she loved the country, she found it difficult to make it her permanent home. She supported our decision to make Aliyah and live in Israel, but it became clear later in life that she that regretted us moving so far away. 3. Mom valued family more than anything and she instilled this value in us. She shared with us her early childhood memories spent with her parents and older brothers, Leslie and Sandy who spoiled and cherished her dearly. Her family life influenced and shaped who she
was; her core values and the things she loved to do stemmed from the home where they spoke a mixture of Yiddish, Hungarian and English. I loved hearing her stories in her New Yorker accent. They had a vacation home on lake Mohegan in upstate NY. She loved sports, playing football with her brothers or watching particularly a good tennis match. Strong women were to be emulated, a good education was a means of reaching one's potential. I think this is what inspired her to become a teacher. Mom taught 9th grade biology in New York City in the 1950's. From her stories, I often pictured her as the young idealistic teacher in the overcrowded NYC school, teaching undisciplined, troubled, gang member multiethnic teens played by Sandy Dennis in the 1967 American film "Up the Down Staircase". What she didn't learn from her formal education she would teach herself from books; there were always books around the house with scribbled notes and marked up pages. "If you can read," she would say, "you can do anything!". Art and plays were her culture of choice. From an early age, she would take us to museums and plays and most of our birthdays and family celebrations were marked with a cultural outing. Family time was a time of celebration. This is the legacy you leave us and our family, Mom. We have not all been together for around eight years. You have brought us together now, and while we are gathered together we will celebrate you and your life. I love you and as I told you when I was in 5th or 6th grade learning vocabulary and testing how to use it in a sentence: I will never omit you from my life. You are in my memory and heart and my DNA forever. Cynthia
