Elizabeth Glenn Scott

I met Elizabeth Glenn Scott (Glenn) in 2011 when she came to Backus as an AFT National Rep to help us organize.  

We spent hours in the car driving the roads of eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts visiting nurses.  After each visit, Glenn would gently debrief with me, offering constructive criticism to improve my skills.  She was so good at this and so gentle that I didn’t realize until afterwards how she was coaching me.  

She was with me when a nurse told us why she was joining the union, not because of financial concerns because the hospital had removed the peanut butter from her floor, simply to save a few bucks. Peanut butter that she would give to chemo patients.

Glenn was a friend and mentor.

She was also a breast cancer patient.

Glenn and I didn’t see each other often after that organizing drive but we stayed in touch, with FB, texts, emails and calls, especially when something major happened in our lives.

I told her when I became AFT CT VP and when Jan was diagnosed.

I was with Jan when I got the message of her passing.  Glenn had lost her battle with cancer.

It hit me hard.

When I asked at our Delegate Assembly for her to be remembered, Jan had to finish my sentence. I couldn’t get the words out.

I dedicated my community service this week to her. She had been proud that we had been arrested for social justice.

Yesterday, after a morning of Labor to Labor door knocking, Michelle and I went to an Ed Sheeran concert. 

One of his songs include the following words: 

“Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes

But it's the only thing that I know

When it gets hard, you know it can get hard sometimes

It is the only thing makes us feel alive”

We make ourselves vulnerable when we follow our hearts.

It’s safer not to care too much.

But it’s not better.

Glenn followed her heart.

That’s what made her a good friend, a mentor, and an activist.