Obituary of Elisabeth Gelber

ELISABETH WEISS GELBER On July 21, 2011, longtime Scotia resident, Elisabeth W. Gelber died. Mrs. Gelber, the wife of the late Dr. Julius Gelber, the mother of nine sons, the grandmother of 27, and great-grandmother of two, passed away in Chicago after moving there just two months ago. Undaunted by any challenge, tireless and creative, she raised her sons, ran her home, and cared for her ailing husband in his later years. Known as Liz to her many friends, and Mom to her many sons, she was a force of nature the likes of which probably comes around every hundred years or so. Born too late to be the frontierswoman she was cut out to be, she made her own frontiers in every part of her life. Elisabeth Weiss was born on November 24, 1925 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Camillo and Mathilde Weiss, immigrants from Austria and Czechoslovakia. Her father was a brilliant civil engineer who expected greatness and accomplishment from his children. The third of four siblings, her brother became a renowned pediatrician in Baltimore, and her sisters excelled in their chosen fields. But in her own way, Liz managed to exceed even the outsized expectations of her Old World father. Educated as a dietician, Liz got her first job in a hospital cafeteria in Baltimore where she met Julius "Chuck" Gelber. She married Dr. Gelber on her 21st birthday and had her first son at the age of 22. In the succeeding 11 years, she was to have seven more sons and another five years later. With nine boys so close in age (her third and fourth sons were only 11 months apart) and a husband busy with his medical career, Mrs. Gelber devised her own methods of child rearing. She color-coded her boys with a matching toothbrush, dinner plate and cup, pajamas and child seat for each one. She created original party games when she had to entertain crowds of children. She insisted on rotating chores for all her sons who would try to find ways to swap washing the dishes (or a few bucks) for setting the table, inadvertently teaching the boys fair exchange and the market value of services. And by example, she showed her boys that with hard work and determination, all things were possible. Mrs. Gelber put her own stamp on everything she did. If a room needed wallpapering, she was a paperhanger. If the garden needed sprucing up, she was a landscaper. She often made her own clothes because she believed she could do it just as well as any seamstress. Cross country skiing, oil painting, Cub Scout den mothering, wind surfing (which she taught herself in her 60s), quilting, bread baking, curtain making, videotaping her grandchildren and baking the world's best apple pie, were but a few of her many accomplishments. As a young mother, she joined an on-going bridge game of doctor's wives and participated in that bridge club for 50 years. She attacked the New York Times crossword puzzle with ink and a fair disregard for the "correct" answers. She tirelessly cooked every holiday meal, remembered every occasion and lived by her generation's rule regarding thank you notes: they were to be prompt, hand written and personal. Liz Gelber didn't know the meaning of the word "can't." She never left a job unfinished and never listened to criticism. Scraped knees, broken bones and perhaps the occasional broken heart didn't phase her. After her children were grown, she went back to school and got a master's in communications from SUNY Albany. She became the director and editor of a local cable program called "Women Together" which anticipated many women's issues by a full decade. A year and a half ago, she was severely injured protecting her husband and her home from a violent criminal. She sustained a life-threatening brain injury which left her in a coma for six weeks. Even then, handicapped, wheelchair bound and struggling to speak, Liz Gelber could not be defeated. Through sheer willpower, she made improvements that surprised her doctors and her family and lived to welcome her second great-grandchild into the world in May of this year. Liz and Chuck would remain together until his death this past February, after 65 years of marriage. Two parts caregiver, one part wife, a dash of psychiatrist and blessed with an exceptional mind full of the arcane and esoteric, she was the "go to" expert in almost any situation. There was no stain she couldn't remove, no hurt she couldn't make better, no casserole she couldn't burn and no better person on this Earth. She had more energy, more projects, more children and more interests than most folks could handle. There's a word for someone like this and it's a real little one: Mom. It seems a little puny for such a huge presence because Liz Gelber was one of a kind . Services will be held at Congregation Gates of Heaven, 852 Ashmore Avenue Schenectady on Sunday at 3 p.m. Elisabeth Gelber is survived by her nine sons, Dr. Benjamin Gelber, Robert Gelber, Franklin Gelber, Charles Gelber, Brian Gelber, Michael Gelber, Dr. David Gelber, Arthur Gelber, Dr. Steven Gelber; 27 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; her brother, Dr. Albert Weiss; and her sisters, Johanna Lever and Esther Adler.