Piroschka (Piri) Glinsky

Piroschka (Piri) Glinsky was a unique, wonderful and beautiful human being. She was born June 3rd, 1970, in Pittsburg, PA to Karen and Steven Glinsky and was the youngest of six children. Piri grew up incredibly poor in Slippery Rock, PA, until the age of 12 when she moved with her mother and siblings to Arizona (to be even poorer). During her childhood her mom dragged Piri and her siblings across the entire globe, to Mexico (for three entire months), Alaska (for three months in a van) and even Europe on a frayed and stained shoestring budget. One would consider it a miracle that Piri survived these misadventures to become the wonderful individual she was. She went on to graduate from the University of Arizona in 1992 with her bachelor’s and then from the University of Arizona Law School in 1997 with a law degree. While getting her bachelor’s at the University of Arizona she snuck into the Bumsteer (a bar that no longer exists in Tucson) with a friend and ended up meeting her husband, Marco Stober at the age of 20. They moved in together almost right away, living in a noisy duplex on Second Street for many years, until they were kicked out after rescuing two puppies; the duplex did not allow dogs. They had started building their dream home but weren't quite done yet so they found temporary housing. They had a shotgun wedding in front of city court judge Eugene Hayes in 2000 due to an unexpected pregnancy (unfortunately Piri miscarried). In 2001 they finished building their home, adding a pool in 2003 and realized they were not pool people. Luckily, their daughter Zina was born in 2004 and eventually made good use of the pool. During all these years Piri worked her way up to Principal Assistant City Attorney for the City of Tucson, where she worked faithfully for 27 years.

Piri made her house a home by infusing it with magic, slowly buying furniture and putting up family pictures. The family pets grew from two dogs and a cat to two dogs, two cats and several chickens. She never denied her daughter the pleasure of bringing in every creepy crawly thing she found outside and keeping it as a pet. In 2015 she and her daughter Zina conspired against Marco’s wishes (he sincerely adores and dotes on these dogs now), to adopt two abused Mississippi mongrels that Piri saw in a news story on CNN. Piri flew across the country to Mississippi, picked up the puppies and drove them home to Tucson. She was so proud of how she rescued our beloved dogs that she told their story to everyone who wanted to pet them. Piri was an incredible animal lover and was always drawn towards those animals who needed the most love and comfort.

Every year she made Christmases special by bringing in a live Christmas tree and decorating it with her impressive collection of german hand-blown glass ornaments. As a family we went to the Christmas tree lot and picked out a tree together around Thanksgiving. Then she would spend the rest of the month of November decorating the tree. She would wrap it perfectly in twinkling golden lights and then hang all her ornaments on it, carefully. There is a specific place for each one on the tree. But it wasn’t only the tree that made Christmas special, she would bring out the advent house and decorate it with twinkling lights, then on December 1st “the Elves” would begin leaving treats for Zina every morning until Christmas day when each door of the Advent House would be filled with treats.

My mom made Christmas magical for me, she made me believe in Santa and his Christmas magic. On Christmas morning a gigantic pile of presents would appear under the tree, of course, from Santa. Each box would be hand wrapped with a little tag that said, To: Zina, From: Santa. I certainly believed in Santa and the Elves and the magic of Christmas until I was

at least 12 years old. My mom’s festive cheer is almost indescribable; it has the quality of something that you needed to be present at to truly appreciate.

Piri’s specialty was Christmas, but she would go all out for every holiday, including Easter, when the Easter Bunny would visit and leave a trail of candy and presents in the garden. But especially for Halloween, when she would put together elaborate and creepy Halloween costumes and decorate our driveway with her army of skeletons.

As many of you know, Piri was a huge Bigfoot and alien fan. As a family we watched every Bigfoot and alien documentary known to mankind. On family vacations we went hunting in the woods for Bigfoot, even driving down old forest service roads and making silly whooping calls into the dark. Sometimes (rarely because we were too scared) braving the dark to get out of the truck and knock on trees with sticks, then running as fast as we could back to safety. We cannot claim to have ever found Bigfoot, unfortunately, but we certainly had a blast trying.

Piri's life was not measured in moments but actions of love, she adored her family, her friends and her pets. It would be possible to go on and on, there are so many moments to share. What is most important, however, is how much she was loved.

My mom was the one who always had the right words for everything, she was an incredible writer. I may not be as incredible as her, but I would like to say; I am so grateful that the universe conspired to allow me the opportunity to be your daughter. I love you more than love could possibly express and I miss you every single day. I will look for your face in each crowd and every room I walk into. When someone hugs me I will remember what it was like to be hugged by you and how it felt to hold your hand. I will laugh at every inside joke privately that we shared when they arise. I will spend the rest of my life wishing for one more conversation with you, one more hug. I love you, mom. You are my favorite person.