Helaine Shepard

Our Helaine wore many hats : daughter, sister, wife , mom, nana, aunt and friend. We feel so blessed to have had her be our guiding light for this long.

The life that Helaine lived was one filled with lots of love but mixed with heartache that began from an early age.

Helaine grew up off Broadway on the upper west side of NYC and was only 14 when one of her older sisters, Bea passed when she was 29. Her family was quite close and she was taught to be kind and strong in order to get through life’s heartaches like this one.

Besides her older sister Lillian, her parents brought in a relative Mike to live with them, and Helaine built a very special bond with Mike who also always doted on her.

She went to NYU, studied merchandising and worked at Lord and Taylor’s. She married Sidney a year after the war ended.

Helaine became the face of Sidney’s fur business for many years and worked so hard while helping to make ends meet to care for her two boys. It was never easy. She never complained and did the very best she could with what they had.

When her youngest son Steven was in a boating accident, life for the Shepard family, as they knew it was never the same again.

After taking care of both Lillian and Sidney until they passed, Helaine continued to devote herself to being Steven’s guardian angel. Until just recently she still managed his bills, his aids, taking him to dr.appts and many daily phone calls.

At the same time while living with this heartbreak Bruce gave her a tremendous amount of joy by showering her with love and attention and 3 amazing grandchildren that became her instant loves!! She was by far the best “nana” !!

I loved Helaine from the second I met her. She immediately became like a mother to me, my best friend and confidant. We built our own relationship and before the kids came we spent a lot of time together, talking about our lives, shopping and going to theatre. She would always tell everyone I was her daughter, which made me feel so blessed as I felt the same way.

After the kids came, Helaine Sidney and often Lillian came up for everything, babysat tons as well as never missed any camp visits here and in Maine. The kids adored them and I know to this day they feel blessed beyond to have had their nana be in their daily lives for so long. Recently, Helaine felt so complete with years of having bonded with Sammie, Jacquelyn, Marni and Levi, and even getting to meet Leni and Phoebe.

Even after I divorced Bruce, our bond never waivered. When Bobby and I became close Helaine approved and their love for one another easily grew as well.

When she moved to Long Beach from Lawrence she was already alone, knew no one, but she didn’t miss a beat. She joined the senior center, learned mahjong, canasta, joined a new temple, became very active and easily made new friends. At 90 she became woman of the year and was honored by so many at a dinner that we all attended.

When hurricane Sandy hit Helaine came to live with us for over 3 weeks -it was just the natural thing to do.

Helaine was blessed with wonderful aids who truly enjoyed working for her. They became friends and like everyone who she brought into her circle felt her love.

We will miss her terribly but will always be reminded by her acts of love, devotion, kindness and strength.

Thanks for listening to how lucky we feel to have had Helaine be our gift. We hope as she looks down on us we will make her proud of how she taught us how we should live our lives.

She is already missed so much.

Emily

And the rest of the gang

Bruce Steven Michael, Marni Levi and Phoebe, Eric and Jacquelyn, Brian Sammie and Leni and Bobby