A Site Devoted to the Memory of Shelly Lipsman, 1944-2015

Lovingly Constructed by her Husband, Ron Lipsman

See the bulleted list below for specific contents and links. In summary, you will find in these pages: Photos of Shelly (many with family and friends) -- both recent as well as others stretching over the entire course of her life; a Eulogy; a two-part Ode to a Great Lady in which I detail the highlights of her life as well as the phenomenal qualites that made her such a special person; several Testimonials submitted by family and friends; an Updates section containing articles, essays and poems pertinent to the memory of Shelly in particular and to the theme of love and loss in general; a section devoted to her crafts, primarliy her amazing Quilts; and a final section with information on a Memorial Garden that was constructed in her honor in Deep Creek Lake. Regarding the Testimonials, it is not too late to send to me (at rlipsman@umd.edu or ronlipsman@comcast.net) a picture, story or description indicating Shelly's interaction with and/or influence on your life. I shall include any (reasonable) submission in the Testimonials section..

• Photos. There are two sections: Recent Photos and Historical Photos. The first contains photos of Shelly taken during the last three years of her life; the latter contains photos covering her life, from her childhood until approximately three years ago.

  NEW Using these photos and some others in his possession, Ron has created two PowerPoint presentations that trace the course of Shelly's life and that of her life with Ron. These are poignant demonstrations of Shelly's beauty and sweetness; and of the happy life she shared with Ron for 55 years. It was emotionally wrenching for Ron to construct these, but the hope is that you will find them moving, meaningful and worth your time.

  Each of the two presentations is offered in three formats. For the simple version, when you click on the link, either PowerPoint will launch and the presentation will download and appear, or you might be asked to open or download it first. In either case, you step through the presentation by tapping your space bar or clicking your mouse. For the automatic presentation, after you download, start the presentation by clicking on the tab, "Slide Show" and then on "From the Beginning" (or press 'F5'); the presentation will run automatically with common Ppt transitions. Finally, in the augented presentation, music has been added to the automatic version. Naturally, the music enhances the impact of the photos.

  The automatic (or augmented) "Shelly" runs about 11 minutes; "Shelly & Ron" runs about 7 minutes.
  Note: The files are big. The simple and automatic presentations may take 1-2 minutes to download (depending on your computer config and connectivity). The augmented presentations might take a little longer. Please be patient; I think you will find the presentations worth the wait.

  	A Life in Photos
  Shelly	simple	automatic	augmented
  Shelly & Ron	simple	automatic	augmented

  Finally, if you access these on a tablet or smartphone, you will first need to download an app to run PowerPoint presentations.

• Eulogy, delivered by Ron at Shelly's funeral in Shaare Torah Synagogue on July 22, 2015.

• Ode to a Great Lady. According to Merriam-Webster, an ode is a "lyric poem" in which a person expresses a strong feeling of love or respect for someone or something. My ode to Shelly has two parts. In the second part, I present a series of vignettes, each of which describes an amazing feature of Shelly's personality or nature, usually wrapped in a brief story concerning an important event or facet of her life. Many of the latter are extracted from the details found in the first part -- which consists of an annotated timeline of the main events in Shelly's life.
  Read the timeline to familiarize yourself with the scenes in Shelly's life -- in some of which you might have played a role. However, it is by reading part two that you will come to understand -- if you haven't already -- what a great lady she was.
  The two parts may be accessed via the links below. Each document is a hyperlinked pdf file. If the pdf file opens with a small font, increase the resolution either by clicking on the + symbol in the pdf menu box or via your browser's special mechanism (e.g., Control+ in Internet Explorer). Many of the historical photos (see first bullet above) highlight the events in the timeline and the scenes in the vignettes.
  1. The Timeline of Shelly's Life.
  2. Vignettes.

• Testimonials. As described in the Eulogy (see above), Shelly was an amazingly empatheic, compassionate and caring wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Family, friends, co-workers and even casual acquaintances were always delighted to be in her company. Her striking smile, always upbeat personality, fantastic good looks and kind disposition made her a joy to be around. Click on this link to read a few personal impressions of her fabulous presence from some of her family and friends.

• Updates Articles, essays and poems appropriate as one considers the life of Shelly Lipsman. They help to maintain the ongoing memory of what a great lady she was.

• Shelly's Quilts. Shelly was an extraordinarily creative person. She filled her life and her homes with her own elegant and inspiring creations. Over her life, she created in many mediums: pottery, needle crafts and all manner of interior design. The fruits of her labors were never sold; rather always used to adorn our bodies and homes as well as those of family and friends. Her favorite medium and the activity in which she was most innovative was quilting. Shelly devoted much of the last 15 years of her life -- after she retired -- to quilting.
  Click here to see a dozen examples of Shelly's amazing quilts (all of which are in Ron's possession). Links to her fabulous bedspreads are also found here.
  Click here to see 13 more quilts that Shelly made for family members and friends.
  Just to present a few examples of some of Shelly's creations in other mediums, here are a few samples of her needlepoint.
  
  There were public exhibits of some of Shelly's quilts at the Germantown Public Library during the months of May and July, 2016. Here are two photos (#1 #2) from those exhibits.

• Shelly's Garden. A memorial garden at the front entrance to Sundown Chase, Deep Creek Lake, McHenry, MD; a community of 12 condos in which Ron & Shelly maintained a second home. The Garden was dedicated on Memorial Day weekend, 2016. Click here to see photos of the event. See also Ron's Remarks at the event.