Following in Their Footsteps

My Mother’s Shoes
Joan Weaving

Her footfall was distinctive on the hallway in our building as she made her way to our apartment: One, two, three, scrape; one, two, three, scrape, and then the key in the door. On her feet were step-in shoes with 3-inch heels…what used to be called pumps.

She wore those shoes to work each day with the straight skirt and sweater set which were fashionable in the years I was growing up. I always associated those shoes with elegance and professionalism.

My mother had an illustrious career, starting as an elementary teacher in New York City and quickly moving up to guidance counselor, vice principal, and finally Director of Guidance for Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. When she left the public sector, she arranged seminars for NYU’s Continuing Education program, and did that until she was well into her 80’s. All the while she went off each day in her stylish shoes: a tall and statuesque presence with a keen mind and a precise tongue. As she got older, her hair turned a lustrous white, and her skin became lined, but she still projected a chic presence as she walked down Lexington Avenue.

But she couldn’t defy time. One day I looked down, and on her feet were “old lady shoes” …. wide, flat, and rubber soled, purposed not for elegance but for support and comfort.  With agonizing clarity, I could see her future unfolding. Her gait started to become unsteady, and a cane appeared in her hand. She could still walk to the bus, but gradually she forgot where to get off, and so she started to stay home. We moved her to assisted living, and then to memory care when she no longer understood her surroundings or could name her children.  She died at age 96, just 5 years ago.

I can picture her in all phases of her life, but my favorite image continues to be the proud woman in her stylish high heels, towering above the world.

Skipping with My Dad
Anne Strozier

I was 12 years old with a beginning interest in boys.  When I came home from school during that year, my mother would ask me about my day.  I’d tell her about interactions with friends and my burgeoning “love interests”, but it seemed like she couldn’t remember the various characters’ names and couldn’t follow my stories.

When my father came home from work, he and my mother would have a cocktail and then we’d have dinner.  After dinner, my father would ask me if I wanted to go for a walk.  

Dad was President of Florida State University, so we lived in the President’s House, a mansion on sixteen acres of land.  The University had recently built a walking lane in front of our house, naming it “Margaret’s Lane” after my mother.

So, dad and I would go outside to the lane and walk in the usually balmy weather.  We would hold hands, and I would tell him all about my boy interests and my girlfriend issues.  He seemed to always remember everyone and everything I told him.  I loved the smell of cigarette smoke on the hairs of his hands.  And sometimes we’d skip and sing as we came down Margaret’s Lane.

In April of that year, my father flew to Chicago to give a speech.  The morning of April 20th, I saw my mother answer the phone.  Upon putting the phone down, she said to me, “Dad has had a heart attack.”  I assumed she meant her father, but she didn’t; she meant my father.  Mother sent my brother Chuck and me to school, and she went to get on a plane that would take her first to Atlanta and then on to Chicago.

At about 11 a.m. someone came to get me at school and take me home.  There were a couple of women in the foyer when I got home, but I didn’t ask them what was happening.  Soon my brother Chuck got home; he immediately asked, and we were told that our father had already died and that our mother was on her way home from Atlanta.  

Soon, mother was home, and the whole preparation for a funeral and a life without my father began.  

I believe that those walks, talks, and skips with my father were great gifts to me in the last year of his lifetime and the beginnings of mine.

Joan Weaving embarked on a successful business career as the first woman Product Manager for Nabisco, Inc., and a Corporate Vice President for Equitable, before starting her own consulting company in 1988, specializing in leadership development and executive coaching for major corporations. Joan has been an active OLLI participant and has played a key role in the conceptualization and execution of the annual Board of Advisor’s retreat. Joan leads our Exploring Leadership Opportunities class in the fall term.

Anne Strozier, Ph.D., MSW, is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of South Florida.  She served as a full-time faculty member for 22 years, retiring in May 2014.  She served as MSW Chair for many years, also as Associate Director and Interim Director.  While at USF Anne created the Florida Kinship Center to provide resources, research, and government liaison for grandparents and other relatives responsible for raising children.  Anne is an active fundraiser for local and international charities as well.