The Greatest Generation of Women

I know I retired my regular column just a month ago, but so many readers have followed stories over the years about my mother, Sharon Mansfield Weinstein, that I wanted to share the news that my Mom passed away this past December 8th at the age of 90. 

Many readers reached out when I shared stories, including one of my favorite exchanges when I wrote about her travels with my Aunt, who was also her sorority sister, and a reader shared a picture of their Hunter College yearbook with me.   

I’ve also shared her recent decline during this time of Covid-19.  And as she told me often in the last six months, “I’m ready Pamela.” We weren’t, but no one can deny that she had lived a long and blessed life.

So as I thought about eulogizing my mother, I started thinking about the “greatest generation.” Normally when I hear the term “the greatest generation” I too often think of the men who fought in WWII, men like my mother’s beloved brothers Larry and Bob Mansfield and my father-in-law Elliot Sherman.

But as I think of my mother and her legacy - I realize now that she was among the greatest generation too - the greatest generation of women to have an impact on our world. These women rose out of a time of great challenge to grow themselves and their families – changing how women were perceived and paving a path not only for their own children but for all women.

My mother became part of this greatest generation by surrounding herself for her whole life with a circle of girlfriends going all the way back to her days at Hunter College as a member of the alpha chapter of Phi Sig.

She devoted herself to life-long learning beginning in college when she became enamored by the life and studies of Margaret Mead to study Anthropology.  But like many of her generation rather than proceeding further with those studies, she acceded to her father’s wishes and became a teacher. 

She was married to my father for 51 years and theirs was a passionate love affair and also an incredibly driven partnership.  While they played mostly traditional roles, he fully supported her work, and she did his.  They raised their children together and taught us what it meant to value the arts, education and have a work ethic.

Finally after having four children, supporting her husband’s practice as an OB/GYN and working as a teacher, she pursued her own ambitions by returning to school to receive a Master's in Education and eventually studying to become a psychotherapist, treating patients until she was 86 years old.

My mother lived a life of true hyperbole – she wanted everything around her to be the “BEST of the BEST” and bigger than life – from her fashion to her cooking to her travels around the world. She was the best of Auntie Mame and the Unsinkable Molly Brown combined. And even after my father died way too soon, she bravely continued on, living a life of bold independence and devoted connection to her family.

She and the other famous women of her generation like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Iris Apfel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and others - to me, truly formed the greatest generation of women – teaching the next generation to dream big dreams, to demand the best from others and mostly from ourselves, to love deeply and with great energy passion, and most of all reminding us, that we can make a difference as much with who we are, as with what we do.

Of course for me, my mother was the greatest of her greatest generation. I was blessed to be her daughter and am lucky that she inspired me and so many others to be our greatest selves.