“She could do no wrong in my mother and father’s eyes,” recalls Gail’s sister Rene.  

 

As her brother Charlie remembers it, “Gail was the princess of my family, and Gary was the

prince – literally the homecoming Queen and King when we lived in Jackson, MS.”  

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Daddy’s Girl, Mom’s Best Friend

“Back then my father, Roy, was real involved in the family and he was a good father. The heavy drinking hadn’t started yet,” Charlie recalls.  Roy and Gail had a particularly special relationship.  

 

                                                        “She was daddy’s girl,” according to Charlie’s wife Bridget.  “For Roy, the sun rose and set                                                                with Gail. Roy absolutely adored her.  All the boys were loud but Gail wasn’t … she was the                                                              calming force in the chaos.” 

 

                                                         Gail might have been “daddy’s girl,” but it was her relationship with her mother, Ruth (now                                                             known to everyone as “Nona”) that became a defining feature of her life.  Gail and Nona were unusually close, and remained that way even as Gail grew into an independent adolescent and adult.  

 

When Gail was a teenager and took a job as a lifeguard at the pool for Paradise Manor, Nona would frequently find herself dropping by to visit.  “I would go over there and end up talking to her the whole time,” she remembers.  “I felt very close to Gail.  We would talk a lot on the phone, our whole life.”

 

According to Bridget, “Gail was Nona’s best friend - I truly believe that and always felt

that. From an outsider looking in, Ruth and Gail were VERY close.”

 

The relationships between Gail and her parents were tested and strained in the lead

up to Ruth and Roy’s divorce.  By this time, Gail was already an adult who had been

living outside of her parents’ house for years, but she was probably the person Nona turned to the most.  “When dad started being unfaithful, my mom would turn to Gail,” Charlie recalls. “They were that close, but obviously that was hard for my mother and all very hard on Gail.” 

 

                                              Gail’s younger brother Johnny was struck by the “extremely unique relationship between Gail                                                    and my mother.  My mother was smart enough to take advice from Gail.  I thought that was a                                                      very unique and good relationship.  Nona would confide in Gail more than anyone else - even                                                        more than her own parents and her friends.” 

 

                                   Two Way Street

But the love and support was a two way street between Nona and Gail.  

 

During all the moments in Gail’s life that she would need help – and there were some big ones – “Nona would go up there and help Gail at the drop of a hat,” according to Bridget.  When both Danielle and Lauren were born, Nona came to Houston to help.  When Gail went to Boulder, Colorado to start her career as a newly single mom, Nona made frequent trips to support Gail, and would also take in the girls at her home in New Orleans during the summer.  

 

In 2000, Gail developed sepsis following a botched hysterectomy and was put into a medically induced coma, which she remained in for weeks.  Nona relocated herself to Denver.  

 

As her daughter Lauren recalls, “Nona would go to the hospital every day, and then come home and we’d pick up Helen from school and then she’d cook us dinner.  And I remember visiting her in the hospital and Nona trying to prepare us that she has a breathing tube, and won’t be able to recognize you and she’s very sedated.  And I thought I would be fine but I walked in and just lost it.”  

 

After Gail got remarried to Mark Glesner and had her third daughter, Helen, they made frequent trips back to New Orleans.  Mark remembers how much “she absolutely loved her mom and dad.  It seemed like several times a year we went down there.  And it was always a real good time getting together with her family.”

 

Roy passed away in 2012, but Nona continued to be one of the closest people to Gail.  When Gail moved back to New Orleans and was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers-Dementia, Nona would visit her daily, in Gail’s home and later at the memory care facility where she lived.  In a tragic turn, she had stepped back into a role of looking after Gail that she hadn’t played in decades.   

 

“It was really hard for me when she got the Dementia,” Nona remembers.  “Because she was so intelligent and always used that to help other people.  You just never saw someone so intelligent and who would light up a room.”  

 

Rhonda Stewart is the caretaker who helped look after Gail, and then later, Nona. She was struck by the relationship between Nona and Gail.

 

“Ms. Ruth looked at Ms. Gail different.  Ms. Gail was so special to Ms. Ruth.  I think she

was just worried a lot about Ms. Gail.  A lot.  But we would go and go get Ms. Gail and go

to the park and get a snowball and get something to eat - even when Ms. Gail was at the

memory care facility.  They had a beautiful relationship.  They had a deep connection. 

Even in the state Ms. Gail was in, you could see the connection they had.”