My mother, Lois Dale (Salk) Galpern, died yesterday, October 17, 2025, at 6:55am eastern time, in my arms. I caught her final breath. She was 93.
She was a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and the Bank Street College of Education, and then, for decades, an early-childhood educator who fought to improve the lives of the children of low-income and working families. In her spare time, my mother also worked hard to elect progressive political representatives.
Now Lois Galpern has joined my father, Arny Galpern, in peace. They were together 75 years, married for their final 71. He died just 23 days before she did.
The day before his death my mother, in her wheelchair and already quite frail, visited my father in the hospital. He was riven with pain, with swelling from a panoply of cardiovascular problems plus damaged vertebrae from what proved to be his final of many falls. My mother bravely told my father then that it was alright at last to let go, that “the boys will take care of me.” And she added that she thought she would be joining him soon enough.
I thought about that scene while helping my mother let go, through her final days of catatonia interspersed with several unfathomable awakenings. Standing vigile at her bedside for her last 24 hours, accompanying her in her final passage, was what my father would have wanted me to do, I thought.
She leaves behind my brother and me, our respective families, and many relatives and friends. She lives on in our memories.
I thought it fitting to share these too-fresh thoughts with you, our Climate Protection and Restoration Initiative supporters, because my mother strongly supported what we are doing here – this battle to secure a viable future for our children and their progeny.
Both of my parents promoted our work in the South Jersey retirement community that had been their home these last six years, including by having me give talks there with some frequency.
At one of them, a year back, I explored what I perceived to be the fundamental relationship between democracy, the rule of law, and prospects for preserving a habitable planet. Afterwards, my mother told me that while she had long been proud of our work, she now, finally, understood it. In her memory, I will strive again for clarity and effective action.
I write here cognizant of the fact that today, October 18, 2025, there are more people on the streets of the nation than ever before. They clamor to preserve our now beleaguered democracy and its foundation, the rule of law. Accordingly this is not merely a fraught moment but one filled with possibility, and that is a thought to which we should have occasion to return as the night turns.
To make a contribution to CPR Initiative in honor of Lois Galpern, click here:
https://givebutter.com/lois-galpern