09/15/2026
My mother, Gloria B. Novak, is celebrating her 90th trip around the sun. Somewhere along the way, became , and it stuck because it fits.
She’s smart, funny, formidable, tenacious, and indomitable. Don’t fall for it when she tells you she’s “just a girl from small-town Texas.” She’s the Queen of Reinvention; never been one to sit quietly in a pre-defined box.
She grew up working in Mema and Grampa’s store and filled my childhood with stories from that world. When I was young, Mom taught elementary school. Later, she spent decades as a dedicated substitute teacher for HISD and was still teaching in 2023. But teaching was only one chapter. She’s curious and willing to learn whatever catches her interest: crochet, cake decorating, decoupage, and Mahjongg, among others.
Mom learned to use computers (when they were still mysterious standalone machines most people had never touched) working as an apartment locator, travel agent, and realtor. When something interests her, she learns how to do it and adds it to her repertoire.
She is the great adventurer, signing up for tours, taking the luck of the draw on roommates, and making new, lifetime friends. She has seen more of the world than I could possibly list here (but I’ll try 😉- Russia, Cuba, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, most of Europe and the Middle East, and more). Recently, we shared some pretty extraordinary adventures, but standing beneath the Northern Lights with Mommie is one I will carry forever.
And her sense of humor ... Let's talk about the plain white envelope that arrived my senior year at UT (Hook ‘Em!); typed address, no return address, and filled with nothing but cotton balls. I called home.
Me: “Um, Mommie, did you send me an envelope full of cotton balls?”
Mommie: “Yes.”
Me: “Why for you sent me cotton balls?”
Mommie: “Because the Cougars are going to the Cotton Bowl, not the Longhorns.”
Every year she gives me $18 in coins for my birthday, $18 for Hanukkah and, yes, $18 for Christmas. Fifty-four dollars a year in change, because chai, because tradition, because Mommie.
She is still very much in motion, learning, making plans, and getting into good trouble. She 'docents' at Holocaust Museum Houston, ushers in Houston’s theater district, and has a whole new circle of friends at the senior center who she joins for exercise, mahjongg, lunches, happy hours, and day trips.
For all the adventures, all the stories, and all the wonderfully Gloria things that make her who she is, one of my favorites is very small … we hold pinkies when we walk together. We always have.
Happy 90th birthday to my smart, funny, endlessly surprising, infinitely reinventing, indomitable mother. I love you more than $54 in coins can possibly express.
May you continue to go from strength to strength with oodles more adventures, stories, and years of holding pinkies.
Ad 120+1, Mommie. I love you!
