Irene "Renee" Hyman died in Silver Spring, Maryland, on November 16, 2023. This remembrance is from her daughter, Carrie Markels: My mom, Irene Ruth Hyman, better known as Renee, was born at the now defunct National Homeopathic Hospital in Washington DC on March 17, 1944. She was raised in modest homes, first in Takoma Park, MD, later moving to Chevy Chase. She graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and received her B.A. in Sociology at the U of MD. She started her career in Pittsburgh as a Special Education Teacher, which was a blessing, especially for my brother, who presents on the Autism Spectrum. Mom recognized his challenges early on.

She married our dad, and while their marriage ended in divorce, it did create The Triplets - Laurie, Jeffrey, and me. After being a full-time mom for many years, she went back to school and became an Accounting Clerk for the Government, for Congressional Country Club, and closer to retirement, for a couple of auto dealerships.

Her job was not her life, we were. She kept a clean, organized and well-fed home. She was always in tune with our feelings, she knew what we needed and when we needed it. She was supportive, caring, open minded, full of heart, and proud of all our accomplishments and the accomplishments of her grandkids to come. Family was everything to her, one of the few things my parents actually shared in common. I often reflect on how hard it must have been to have baby triplets for both our parents. Especially now as Laurie and I have been able to experience parenthood ourselves. Whenever I would complain about raising twins, she would remind me how she had to do everything three times, often at the same time.

Her favorite local outing without us was to the grocery store, where she would walk up and down every single aisle before heading back home. But her favorite place to be was the beach. Always Ocean City, MD. She loved to walk that boardwalk, mainly to people watch, eat seafood, shimmy-shake to Motown music, country line dance, or just hang at the local spots.

Mom showed up when we needed her and when her grandkids needed her. She took my brother Jeff grocery shopping weekly, for years, to make sure he picked up essentials, and I bet they walked every aisle. She was there for the births of her grandkids. She came for visits and got a kick out of playing with them when they were young. As they grew, she came to their soccer games, their piano recitals, their theatre performances, and their ice competitions, proud to watch their big moments.

In her final days, she was still able to banter with us, poke fun at her housemates, and at life. We took her on wheelchair rides around the block commenting on Halloween decorations and later the red autumn leaves. Although she had progressive dementia, one of her last amazing moments was her singing her favorite summer camp song to my brother Jeff, one that she often sang to us, driving across the Chesapeake bay bridge heading to the beach. Mom, we miss you, we love you.