Betty Wolfe 1923 - 2008

In 1999, I met Betty - a tiny but amazingly strong old woman, surrounded by children and laughter. That first day she told me the first of many little fibs – she said that in her daycare, the tv was hardly on during the day and the kids only got goodies occasionally. Over the years I learned that she told you what you wanted to hear because she wanted to make you happy. And she always did just that; she filled my heart and Sophia’s life with happiness. I honestly don’t know how I could have made it through the first five years of Sophia’s life without Betty’s help and love. I have little family in LA and my own mother had died years before Sophia was born. Betty became my adopted mother and Sophia’s grandmother. She taught Sophia her abc’s and she potty-trained her and she let her spend the night so many times over the years – in fact, Sophia knew how to say “Betty” long before she could say “Mama”.

As I grew closer to Betty, she told me stories of her life – she’d had a very difficult life when she was young. And yet she was the most positive and happy person I have ever met. I think after all the hardships, she wanted only laughter and love in her life, and so she chose a path that enabled her to be surrounded by simple joy all day. Her love for children was amazing, her patience and acceptance. She could also, of course, be frustrating and stubborn and hard-headed as could be if you were an adult trying to talk some sense into her, but really what could you do but laugh and shake your head and let her have her way…

The night she passed away, Sophia reminded me how Betty used to love to come out on her front porch in the evening and watch the moon and have a little puff and a little drink. Often when the kids had left late in the evening, she would talk to me of her husband and how she missed him so, decades after he had passed away. I know that they are having a ball now, together again finally.

Every day of every year, Betty Wolfe touched the lives of hundreds of people. She helped countless over-whelmed parents and lovely babies who grew into young men and women, so many of whom came back to work with Betty years later. Her arms have wrapped around generations. I am so grateful that she was a part of my life and that my daughter and I were able to learn about real love from her. We are so fortunate to be one of the thousands whose lives she made better.

Good bye Sweet Betty.