I knew and loved Judy as my girlhood best friend’s mom, and, as such, she was a second mother to me during those complicated teenage years. She shared many of the same traits as my own mom, also a Judy, but she was an anomaly in the realm of friends’ moms as she was uniquely open and patient and present. In the face of all our struggles and mischief she was there to listen and to empathize.
She was also so definitively her own person. I loved her eagerness to experiment with her careers and talents. I constantly asked her to play the video tape of her laundry detergent commercial. Why was it so thrilling to see Judy with her “That Girl” hair flip running through a field, holding the hands of two children long before there was Jenna and Aaron?
Though she grew up without her own mother, somewhere along the way she figured out how to excel in her role as a real mom. Through her patience and empathy, creativity, sense of humor, and youthful enthusiasm she totally nailed the Mom gig. And somehow she managed to make the two kids and a loving husband and lots of pets and a house in the suburbs seem so unconventional. She was a natural.