My mother was an interesting woman...

My mother had retired, and as a former office manager, she had great office skills, back in the day. She could file and type and stuff, way before the computer was a reality. Way back in 1978, when Harry Hughes was beginning his campaign for governor of Maryland, he had a small base of support. He was fighting a large Democratic machine, the then Lieutenant Governor Blair Lee and he was the independent candidate.

The night he won the State Democratic primary, he thanked three people by name; his Campaign Manager, his wife Patricia, and his one full-time permanent volunteer, my mother, Rena Greenblatt. Once the candidate became the party nominee, there was a complete office staff, but my mother stayed on anyway, and later was appointed to the Commission on Aging, and was, by her own admission, the only “old person” on the committee.

The morning after the soon to be Governor had won the primary; he was on television thanking his three stalwarts. Soon after that announcement, my mother received a call from a friend in her seniors building. “Rena”, she said, “you’ll never believe it!” “There’s another woman out there with the same name as you”!

It was simply too hard to imagine my mother, at her age, in a place of importance.