[Sandy in Silicon Valley]

Hi,

Figured that, given what's been posted in this round of jumping this thread up, I might as well copy & paste parts of my home-made obituary - since I think it gives the relevant info (and then some, but I've made cuts in the interests of brevity):

<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title>Obituary</title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.2 (Linux)"><meta name="AUTHOR" content="Sandy"><meta name="CREATED" content="20060823;6570000"><meta name="CHANGEDBY" content="Sandy"><meta name="CHANGED" content="20060825;8280000">" <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --></style>Sandy Greenberg, a social worker, child advocate, former early childhood educator, avid motorcyclist and traveler, died _________ of metastasized breast cancer, at age _________.

Sandy grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, NY, lived in Columbus, Ohio from 1968-1979, had permanent residence in Schenectady, NY from 1979-2001 during which she lived in Haifa and Jerusalem, Israel in 1987-88 and 1991-93 respectively.


A staunch Zionist and grassroots political activist, Sandy volunteered in numerous capacities, as a Hadassah outreach driver, a League of Women Voters family court monitor, a Russian immigrant settlement facilitator, a tutor at a homeless shelter, and a Child Advocate for Santa Clara County foster children.


Love of dancing, especially to live music, was a key to full enjoyment of life for Sandy. She and her husband Bruce served as volunteer publicity coordinators on the board of Dance Flurry, an annual gathering of dance and dance music enthusiasts held in Saratoga Springs, NY. Sandy volunteered as an aerobic dance instructor at Plaza del Rey in Sunnyvale, from 2001-2005; after craniotomies for brain metastases, she took belly dance classes at Sunnyvale Community Center, and she and Bruce enjoyed swing and country-western dancing at various venues in Silicon Valley.


As a survivor of an abusive upbringing, Sandy had a special place in her heart for abused and neglected children. Early in her career, she worked as a library aide, distributing children’s paperback picture books, recruiting parents and children to join reading programs, and reading aloud, often using puppets to engage the children. After graduating from Queens College, City University of NY, in 1969, with a major in Comparative Literature, Sandy taught preschool, kindergarten, and parent-child classes for parents of toddlers and preschoolers.


In 1988, at age 40, Sandy returned to school to earn her graduate degree in Social Welfare. Upon graduation, she directed a program for Parenting Teenagers at the local YWCA. In Israel, she assisted Rami Benbenishti, a professor at Hebrew University, helping in his research, editing articles for publication, and developing software applications for child welfare settings. Upon her return to the U.S. in 1993, Sandy entered the SUNY-Albany School of Social Welfare PhD program, but dropped out after her second semester of studies.



Sandy married her live-in soulmate, Bruce, and moved from Schenectady NY to Sunnyvale, CA in 2001 with Bruce’s daughter, Shiri. Initially, Sandy worked as Senior Grants Coordinator for Emergency Housing Consortium, then as Parent Resources Facilitator for San Jose State University Associated Student’s Child Development Center, and finally as Adoption Social Worker for FamiliesFirst, a non-profit foster family agency.


Ms. Greenberg chose “early retirement” on disability after undergoing a craniotomy for a metastatic breast cancer tumor in her cerebellum in early 2005. She was able to continue her volunteer activities after healing from a second craniotomy later that year, and enjoyed traveling to Cancun, Kauai, Dublin and County Wexford, Ireland, SE Australia and across the U.S.


In 2006, unable any longer to ride her motorcycle for long distances, due to occasional imbalance and fatigue from residual cancer and treatment symptoms, Sandy undertook a solo road trip by car, up the Northwest coast, to Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, visiting with friends along the route.


Sandy's favorite hobbies (play therapy) involve handcrafts such as making beaded jewelry, creating bowls and baskets from coiled fabric scraps, crocheting caps and scarves for newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, embroidering and sewing.



Sandy is survived by her husband, parents, sister, three daughters and one granddaughter."