There’s a worldwide fascination with the phenomenon of Amanda Gorman, the young inaugural poet whose meteoric rise to cultural icon has captivated all of us. Knowing what an influence we grandmothers can have on our grandchildren’s lives, I was curious to learn more about Amanda’s grandmother, Bertha Gaffney Gorman.
I seized the opportunity to connect with Bertha through my longtime friend, Dinah Berland, an author and poet who mentored Amanda the year before she attended Harvard through a non-profit organization called WriteGirl.
What an honor and privilege to welcome, Bertha to our November GaGa Sisterhood meeting. Bertha shared her family history, values, and influences and explained how they shaped her life as well as the lives of her children and grandchildren.
A Grandmother’s Poem
Above all else, Bertha is a strong, humble, and proud woman who has been a positive and powerful influence on all four of her grandchildren. Amanda has an older brother, Spencer, 26, and a twin sister, Gabrielle, 23. Their cousin Maya is 22. At the end of Bertha’s presentation, she proudly read a poem she wrote and explained it was written in a poetry workshop led by Amanda when she was 18 years old.
I love the bittersweetness of life
I am the girl who loves butterflies, flowers, ladybugs, and babies
I love the color of rainbows,
the smells of clothes drying outside in the warm sun,
The earth after it rains
I love the perfection of babies unspoiled by the human experience
The fire that warms the humblest abode
I love the earth color of my skin
The wooliness of my hair
And the strength of my resolve
I love the openness of my mind that pulls in and pours out
all that I can see, touch, and smell
Sometimes invited
Most often not
I love the unseen experience to guide me
I love people whose hearts are reflected in their eyes
I love my intuitiveness
The spirits that guide me providing encouragement,
high fives and smiles and warming of the things I cannot see
I love life
this bittersweetness of living
the color of the rainbow
the smell of the earth
the openness of my mind
the perfection of babies
I’m a black woman
The daughter of American slaves
The daughters of Africans
I am the hopes and dreams of my ancestors
I have not shamed my ancestors
There’s a memorable line from Amanda’s inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb — a skinny Black girl descended from slaves — that can also be attributed to her grandmother, Bertha. When slavery ended in 1827 in New York, her paternal great-great-grandfather was among the people the slaveholders took to South Carolina, then moved to Texas in 1863.
Bertha’s Beginnings
The third child and oldest girl of 12 children, Bertha grew up on a rural farm in Texas on land that belonged to slaves. Her earliest memories were of her mom reading fables and bible stories to her and her two older brothers. In the fall and winter, her dad was the storyteller. Though not well-educated or a good reader, he acted them out and became the monster in his stories which the children loved. Dreams were important too and the family shared them from the previous night at the breakfast table then turned them into stories of their own.
In the 1940s, there were no public schools to attend because the only way children could have a school was if the parents paid for it. Her mom taught Bertha reading and arithmetic until she began school at age nine. Her maternal grandfather gave her the first book she ever owned and once boasted to his friend that Bertha could read at age four. The man offered Bertha a nickel if she could read a page for him. She countered by saying: “Can I have a quarter if I read the whole thing?”
As a parent and grandparent, Bertha continued her family’s tradition of passing down history through storytelling. When the grandchildren would gather for the holidays, they planned the entertainment for the family – reciting poetry, telling stories, or presenting original plays they created. They made tickets, required them for entry, and created a set for their production. This creativity provided fertile ground for all four grandchildren who are each creative in their own right. Spencer is a sound engineer, Gabrielle is a filmmaker, Maya is a dancer and we all know about Amanda.
Grandmothers Are Cheerleaders
Bertha encouraged each of her grandchildren’s special strengths and has been their biggest cheerleader as they were growing up. She once took them on a vacation and when they got back, 8-year old Amanda wrote a 65-page story about their vacation. That’s when Bertha knew Amanda was a writer and from then on, Amanda referred to herself as a writer.
Bertha doesn’t play favorites and explained that they are “each their own person – individuals – not carbon copies of each other and she doesn’t try to compare them and tells others not to either.”
Quick to admit her family was not prepared for the impact of fame surrounding Amanda, Bertha said it was a shock and overwhelming. Sometimes she went to her door and there were people sitting outside. People say Amanda is the new Oprah. Bertha was driving in Santa Monica and was surprised to look up and see a billboard with Amanda’s picture. Bertha’s friends complain that she doesn’t tell them about Amanda to which she replies, “if I followed Amanda every day, that’s all I’d be doing because she has such a huge presence.” She quickly adds that “fame is not important but keeping family relationships is and when the kids get together, they just want to be themselves.”
Grandmother Power
Bertha’s an accomplished woman herself. For more than a decade, she worked as a reporter for the Sacramento Bee, the major newspaper in California’s state capital. She spent another decade as a consultant with the California State Assembly and worked at various management levels at Lockheed Martin Corporation for 20 years. She served three years as an Associate Secretary at the California Health and Human Services Agency.
Since retiring in 2005, she traveled to Kenya every year not just for adventure but also to do community-building work with women and children. Her last trip was in 2018. She continues to volunteer, serving on two boards of directors, and sponsors a young student in Kenya by paying for her school tuition.
When Bertha finished sharing stories, we had a Q&A. She introduced her younger sister, Flossie Crump who was also at the Zoom meeting and they shared fond memories of family reunions. Bertha ended the meeting by answering the last question: What qualities did your grandchildren inherit from you?
“They’re all outspoken. I don’t apologize for who I am and challenge anyone who questions my right to be who I am. What I love about my grandchildren is they know what they believe and stick to it; they don’t apologize for who they are and they’re not afraid to step up and speak their passion.”
