Remembering Martha Glaser

Martha and I worked together at Medical Economics company years ago—in Oradell--I worked at Medical Economics magazine, she at Drug Topics—

Most boring place in the world to work—

Every other week, someone resigned and signed up for combat duty overseas…

To help keep boredom at bay, among other things we held surprise birthday parties—Invited people to lunch, near their birthdays, then all shouted HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Martha was the only peron who didn’t show up for her birthday party—she got busy at the last minute--When I told her that we had a wonderful time without her, she was pleased—really--That’s the kind of person she was—

We became friends again not long ago thanks to a social group called the Hobbyists

Roy is a mmber—and we went places togeother—to concerts, plays, and so forth—and to HowesCaverns—that’s an inside joke--

The rest of my life is going to be a little less fun because Martha won’t be there—

She was kind, generous, warm, agreeable--no envy, no nastiness—just niceness--

and smart—

Whenever I got an email from her, it didn’t have a dopy joke or a riddle –it had a sensible comment—like, that joke of yours ,warren, was much better than the one you sent me yesterday—

People loved her—Roy, of course—also her former husband—she showed me her investment portfolio after he died—almost all of her money was in money market funds—I thought—very conservative, too conservative—but he was deeply concerned that she not run out of money—

She didn’t attend our recent seder service—she wasn’t feeling well—but she had promised to provide us with a fruit salad—and when we discovered we needed a dozen hardboiled eggs, we knew whom to ask—

The night of the seder, Roy came with the fruit salad—and a dozen hardboiled eggs—

Anyway, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Teddy, was a piece of work—at a party she told a guest, if  you don’t have anything nice to say about anyone, come here, sit by me—well, Mrs Longworth wouldn’t have invited Marttha to sit by her—

And that would have been her loss—

I feel privileged to have had Martha as a friend—