Shelley Cohen Orenstein's Obituary
Shelley Cohen Orenstein, 74, passed away unexpectedly while traveling to New Jersey to celebrate Thanksgiving with cousins. She will be missed by many family members, neighbors, and friends.
Shelley was born on April 18, 1951 in Jersey City, New Jersey. The eldest of Irma and Kenneth Cohen's two daughters, she grew up in Suffern and Monsey, New York and graduated from Spring Valley Senior High School in 1969. Post graduation, she traveled to Israel and lived on a kibbutz, a transformative experience that reinforced her connection to her Jewish identity, faith, and heritage.
A registered nurse for the better part of four decades, Shelley spent the early part of her career living and working on Long Island, where her three sons were born. Nursing was a calling that also provided her with the means to support herself and her boys following a divorce from their father. In 1987, she moved her young family down to South Florida to be closer to her parents. While she called Florida home for the last 38 years, she periodically experienced wanderlust, planning as many vacations as she could to visit family and discover new places.
Shelley learned never to take her life for granted. Just three weeks before her wedding to Husband Ed Orenstein in 1999, she was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), a slow-growing cancer of the bone marrow, and was given only three-to-five years to live. Thanks to medical advances - and her own spirit and determination - she beat CML (and later, thyroid cancer), living to see her youngest son graduate from high school, two sons graduate from medical school, and all three married, plus the births of seven grandchildren. She and Ed experienced far more ups than downs in their marriage and celebrated their 26th anniversary in October, with Shelley still in remission.
In addition to being a proud cancer survivor, Shelley felt honored to be a military mom, daughter, and granddaughter. Sons Jason and Aaron were submariners in the Navy (with Jason retiring as a Master Chief Petty Officer), and Scott served in the Air Force. They followed in the footsteps of Shelley's father, who was stationed on a mine sweeper during World War II in the Pacific, and her grandfather, Harry Cohen, who served in the Army during World War I. She was passionate about the hard-fought freedoms we enjoy as Americans and regularly voted and exercised her freedom of speech, debating acquaintances and sharing her opinions when she disagreed with our leaders.
Shelley tried to start each day with a good cup of coffee and a book. She enjoyed trying new restaurants and recipes - and as someone with celiac disease, was always on a quest to find gluten-free versions of her favorite foods. She often showed her affection for others by cooking and loved hosting dinners for her family and friends, especially making traditional Jewish dishes for Rosh Hashanah and Passover and gathering for Thanksgiving. On their wedding days, she gifted each of her daughters-in-law with a family cookbook that collected heirloom recipes from their family members and shared coveted recipes for some of her sons' favorite foods, like brisket and chicken curry.
A dreamer with an eye for hidden potential and how things could be improved, Shelley made note of many future home renovation projects. She always invested in good shoes, because "we only have one pair of feet." She devoted countless hours to creative pursuits, from painting ceramics to learning to make her own greeting cards, soaps, and paper. True to form, though she may have started more albums than she finished, she enjoyed scrapbooking because it preserved memories and family history for her grandchildren and future generations. In recent years, she liked to journal, decorate, and take notes in her planners.
She loved laughing, smelling flowers, giving and getting hugs, going to the movies, and anything purple, pink, or sparkly. Shelley enjoyed liver and onions, tongue, a great steak, Fiorella's gluten-free pasta dishes, and all things chocolate. She liked being pampered at the salon or spa, getting a good massage, shopping (especially patronizing mom n' pop shops), playing Canasta and Maj jongg, connecting with new people, playing bingo with her sister-in-law, going to Bible study, and snuggling with her Yorkie, Bruno. Some of her favorite trips were visits to the out-of-state kids and grandkids and a winter cruise taken with her best friend of 67 years, Gloria, and their spouses.
Shelley was generous and had a big heart. She regularly contributed to neighborhood food drives, donated clothing, and offered to help the people she cared about. When two brothers who were good friends of her sons lost their mother, and their father had to move out-of-state for work, she opened her home to the boys so they could finish out their high school year in Florida. When her middle son and daughter-in-law moved back to Florida, she and Ed invited them to live in their home for a few months until they were able to settle into another house. In their later years, Shelley regularly checked up on her parents, taking them to doctor's appointments and making sure they had everything they needed.
But above all, Shelley doted on her grandchildren and the newest members of her family. She felt she missed out on so many things with her own kids as a single working parent, so cherished every moment she could spend with the grands. Her house was a magical place full of the best snacks and where the tooth fairy's sister came to visit. She loved treating her grandsons and granddaughters to birthday dinners at restaurants, making their favorite meals from scratch, going to Mariners games together, watching their dance recitals and gymnastics competitions, picking out special outfits and gifts, taking them out for ice cream or milkshakes, bringing them to the park and pool, hosting grandma sleepovers, cuddling, tickling backs, being silly, and Facetiming to check in. She looked on lovingly when her grandkids stuck out their tongues while concentrating, reminiscent of her father, and was tickled pink when they shared her sweet tooth. She also delighted in seeing how her sons embraced fatherhood, watching them help with homework, bake with their kids, and impart knowledge about gardening, nature, animals, sports, and
working on cars.
In recent months, Shelley enjoyed visiting with her niece, Heather, and getting to know her new grand-nephew, Jaden. She was very much looking forward to attending her eldest granddaughter's bat mitzvah in October. And on the last day before she passed away, Shelley spent the afternoon taking her youngest granddaughter to the park.
Shelley is survived by her husband, Ed; sons Jason (Kim), Aaron (Anna), and Scott (Melissa) Rubenstein; grandchildren Maxwell, Jett, Harper, Cash, Kensington, Willem, and Robin; sister-in-law Martel Orenstein; stepdaughter Emily Forcellina; great-aunt Tema Price; as well as numerous other relatives, former colleagues, classmates, friends, and community members.
While we'll miss Shelley, there's a special place in heaven for the mother of three sons - and we take solace in knowing that she's now reunited with other departed loved ones, including her beloved father, who was her hero, and her cousin Billy, who passed away over 40 years ago but whose absence she still felt deeply. She no longer has any aches or pains, and she'll now be able to eat all the gluten without getting sick.
A funeral service will be held for Shelley at 10:15 am on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel, located at 5805 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, FL 33484, followed by interment at 11:30 am at Eternal Light Memorial Gardens, located at 11520 FL-7, Boynton Beach, FL 33473.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Shelley's memory to the American Cancer Society.
https://www.cancer.org/
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