My mother the lawyer

I recently got a postcard reminding me that the anniversary of my mother's death is coming up. She's been gone more than 25 years now and I still miss her. She drove me crazy often while alive but her death left a hole that can't be filled. Still, we go on. I'm not saying I'm unhappy or anything; I just miss her.

Goldie Kanter Mayer was a combination of Yiddishe mama and firecracker lawyer. Sometimes she got the roles confused. She would mother her clients and fight for them. In return, they would mow her lawn or paint her house. They were hardbitten people, not a millionaire among them. Black people, and recent migrants (white)from West Virginia. They worshipped her, and she did not let them down. She loved, really loved, the law and being an attorney. She practiced law for at least forty years. She knew all the judges, court personnel and cops.

At her funeral, my uncle said, "They should have had Goldie's funeral at the first Baptist Church if they really wanted a big turnout."

She was honest and fearless. Any moral strengths I have can be attributed directly to her example.