SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A remembrance now of Sister Georgianna Glose, one of the nearly 90,000 people in the United States who've died from COVID-19. Sister Glose was a teacher and an advocate in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was bold. She was outspoken and an ally of the homeless and disadvantaged. Teresa Theophano worked with her at the community nonprofit Sister Glose founded, the Fort Greene Neighborhood Action Partnership, and was a close friend. Thanks so much for speaking with us.
TERESA THEOPHANO: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: We're sorry for the loss of your friend.
THEOPHANO: I appreciate that.
SIMON: What kind of difference did she make in what you could see all around you?
THEOPHANO: You know, she really made a difference in so many different kinds of ways. She was my very first social work mentor and I learned from her both how and why to be both gentle and no-nonsense as a social worker and as an organizer and as a woman who people might be quick to underestimate. She was passionate about putting antiracism into practice for white social workers and what it meant to collaborate with communities of color without taking on a white savior complex, especially in a gentrifying neighborhood that was just rife with tension and inequity, you know? She really stood up for her ideals and for other people. But she was kind, and she was patient, at the same time that she didn't take any crap from anybody, if I may say so.
SIMON: In 1993, she and a fellow sister raised an alarm about priests in the parish sexually abusing children. Did she ever talk about that?
THEOPHANO: She had mentioned some of that to me, some of the whistleblowing that she had done. And I believe that she had also worked towards abolishing a statute of limitations for victims to come forth about sexual abuse. And that was just such an excellent example of the fearlessness that she put forth in all of her actions.
SIMON: What was it like to be in her company?
THEOPHANO: It was like being around a kind of auntie you really want to have. She would brandish a mop at the end of the night at her little community-based organization in a storefront in Brooklyn. And she would say something like, you know, Elizabeth Taylor never had to mop the floor. And she would proceed to go ahead and mop the floor. I remember laughing so hard when she said that. It's just not something I expected her to say. She was absolutely delightful.
SIMON: I have to admit one detail that it was irresistible to note from her accounts about her life was that she liked to roller skate to work.
(LAUGHTER)
THEOPHANO: I deeply regret that was one of her pastimes in which she engaged before I began working with her. I never had the pleasure of witnessing it, but it brings me such great joy to envision it now.
SIMON: Sister Glose was 73 and active until, I gather, the last days. How do you hope people carry forward her spirit and what animated her?
THEOPHANO: You know, she embodied the spirit of our profession and of a progressive nun, and she did it her way. She was the - what I can really sum up about her was that she was a reverent woman with a hilariously irreverent streak. I loved that about her. She will live on as an example in the lives of other people - if they practice kindness at the same time that they rabble-rouse, if they don't suffer fools gladly at the same time that they share everything they've got. And if they continue to build community and fight injustice at every turn, they'll perpetuate the spirit of Glose.
SIMON: Teresa Theophano is a social worker. And she was a close friend of Sister Georgianna Glose, who died last month of complications connected with the coronavirus. Thanks so much for being with us and remembering your friend.
THEOPHANO: Thank you. I appreciate it, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
