Profiles In Awesome: Bernice Glass

After a particularly long day in Chinese class last week, I ambled by the letter rack and saw a letter with my name on it. It was from my lovely grandmother, and she included a photo of the two of us, a little fortune from a fortune cookie and a nice note. It was so sweet and thus, I wanted to give her a blog shout-out.

Bern is a wonder. She takes great care of herself and has a terrific sense of humor, not to mention excellent wit and comic timing. (To an obnoxious early-riser friend: "Good for you. Why don't you get a paper route?") When I visit her, we usually grab food at Buddy's, my favorite Jewish deli in Queens, where the matzoh ball soup is delicious and the bowls are so huge you could swim in them. Then it's back to her place, where we browse her catalogue of over 200 movies, all on VHS and taped from television. She keeps a list of them in a little notebook, alphabetized and numerically labeled, because she is more organized than I could ever dream of being. I've seen tons of stuff with her, ranging from And The Band Played On to Gaslight to Primal Fear. But since I'm a sucker for Montgomery Clift, I think my favorites have been The Heiress or A Place in the Sun. Oh, Montgomery. How I love your brooding dark looks and your ambiguous sexual orientation.

She's a strong woman, my grandmother. She has dealt with all kinds of struggles, from family issues to major illnesses, and has persevered. Maybe I'm biased, but she raised two incredible people (my dad and my aunt) and ran my grandfather's washing machine repair business for many years after his death. So, props to you, Bernice Glass. I am always sad that I never got to know Stanley and Kurt and Erna, my other grandparents, but I am so lucky that I have you in my life, and that I have your support on this journey far from home.