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| Noël Brusman, right, and her future husband Marvin on a date in 1979. |
The easy thing to do would have been to pass this along to our excellent obituary writer, Mitch Dudek. But the material Noel Brusman's daughter-in-law sent was so extensive, I knew I could extract something interesting from it for a column. And when I saw that she had married her divorce attorney, I knew I'd made the right choice.
Noël Brusman was an avid smoker. She loved cigarettes. But the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report put an end to that. Brusman quit through “sheer willpower,” promising to pick up the vice again on her deathbed.
But when that sad time came last month, Brusman forgot her promise. She did, however, ask for gin, and Marvin, her husband of 43 years, served her Beefeater on ice, with lime and tonic, in a Wonder Woman sippy cup.
Brusman’s death Dec. 11, two weeks before her 93rd birthday, was not noted in the newspapers. The media likes to pile on, gilding the lily. Those “The Lives They Lived” retrospectives last week celebrating, yet again, the familiar accomplishments of Tina Turner, Rosalynn Carter and their ilk. Just in case you forgot.
About the same time as those were appearing, I received an email from Brusman’s daughter-in-law.
“Years ago, you wrote of U.S. Air Force soldiers on a peacekeeping mission who gave away Beanie Babies to Afghan children,” began Patti Naisbitt, referring to a story written 17 years ago. “Noël Brusman, mother of one of the soldiers, was tireless in her efforts to collect and ship beanie babies. You talked with Noël for that story ... she had a lot to offer.”
That she did.
”She was a grassroots activist, always working to make her community a better place,” wrote Nana Naisbitt, Brusman’s daughter. “Noël had a myriad of interests, but preferred to address big challenges like racial inequality in the Chicago schools, adding sex education to Chicago school curriculums, and fighting for teachers’ rights, even while raising five children.”
She was no cosseted do-gooder, advocating causes from the chaise of ease. Life served Brusman up curveballs. Breast cancer, twice, at age 37 and 54, because once wasn’t enough, apparently. Her first husband, John, abandoned her and their five children in the spring of 1975. So she found “the love of her life” in an unexpected place: divorce court, marrying her attorney, Marvin Brusman, in 1980.
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Heartening.
ReplyDeleteJohn (no, not that John)
It sounds like Noël Brusman was a force of nature. She chose to do good for society and especially for children, both at large and those in her care in her capacity as a teacher. I am sure her wit helped her through her dealings with a patriarchal system set up by a patriarchal society. Though I am a man with privileges I wasn't even aware of until recent years, as I leave middle age approaching the final phase of my life, I fear for what our society may regress to, given the nefarious forces at work (they have always been with us, but they seem to be gaining ground). Will the next generation of women find that only the exceptions, like Ms. Brusman will have the opportunity to truly live out loud?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, may Noël Brusman be remembered for her contributions to society and for her irrepressible personality, which you managed to capture in this tribute to her memory.