My children never got to know my parents, so I’m always trying to think of ways to pass down their legacy.
My folks were in one sense the ultimate odd couple — he a conservative Catholic and she a liberal feminist Protestant. But their values were remarkably aligned in key areas: kids, community, education. Both were Scout leaders and school volunteers. Dad was chairman of the area United Fund campaign, my mother was Red Cross disaster chairwoman. Mom taught English as a second language, helping her immigrant students get driver’s licenses and jobs, and taught American history to men at the nearby penitentiary. In a move that probably didn’t make my father terribly happy, she once went door to door soliciting for the Bobby Seale bail fund.