Gloria was such an amazing character

She was there for EVERYONE at one point, even beyond her own (prison) family, sometimes even at her own disadvantage.

That woman did everything she could for her kids. She had to say goodbye to them for a while to work hard to obtain a better life, owning a shop and doing everything for them to live the best life possible, even when her own daughters declined to visit her. She endured an abusive relationship and ended up being set up leading to her being imprisoned.

At Litchfield, she helped Daya throughout her pregnancy, even when Aleida was jealous, and despite not being able to stop Daya from her fate, stuck by her all the way until the end. She defended Flaca from Piper’s threats (thinking she stole the money from the panty business), despite their feud regarding Flaca leaving the kitchen for the new job behind her back. She was there for Red, even after getting the kitchen, helped her through her conflict with Vee and even in Max stuck by her side whilst in the SHU, having to witness Red’s slow descent into Dementia. When Benny was hospitalized and got brain surgery during the riot, she risked everything by attempting to free the hostaged CO’s and despite Maria taking the opportunity away from her, she still owned up to the contraband phone she got for Karla in the ICE (something again she really didn’t HAVE to do) kitchen, when she easily could have blamed Maria, risking five more years on her sentence when she was just DAYS from her release.

Despite her conflict with Sophia, she never uttered a bad word about her and discouraged Aleida and the other inmates from directing transphobic comments against her, and even helped Sister get into SHU to finally get to Sophia, allowing Sister to literally SLAP her in the face to obtain that. When Sophia (who refuses to apologize) gets out, she sticks up to the other inmates who took over her salon and helps her put her wig back on. When the riot breaks out, she does everything to de-escalate the situation by getting Humps to Sophia and Medical to stop Daya from being blamed for his death.

When the riot broke out, it was GLORIA who ended up going to the kitchen to make food for everyone, and even went out of her way to bring Suzanna a yoghurt for breakfast. When Lorna attempted to escape due to a psychosis and was discharged from Medical, Gloria helped Nicky to help Lorna walk back to her cell, comforted Lorna and even wanted to inform Shani about Nicky’s absence. When Piper was feeling down about few signing up for kickball, it was GLORIA enouraging her to ask the entire prison and get it going.

And there’s even a lot of instances I’m missing. She might have been harsh sometimes, but her heart was always in the right place for EVERYONE. I’m so happy she got to have one of the happier endings, being released and living with her family at last. And the fact that even after being released and her feud with Maria, she STILL came around and sent her that children’s book Maria talked about afterwards.