I grew up in a very close knit family in a small town on Lake Champlain in Northern New York, the third child of Fran and Bill Cohen.  I completed my undergraduate work in English Education and my masters in reading at University at Albany, I spent most of my career in adult education, first in the classroom (Professor of Academics) and then in administration (Coordinator of Program Development and Research) at the Capital District Educational Opportunity Center, a division of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York.

My husband Larry and I met at a Jewish singles Purim party, where I was Queen Esther and Larry was King Ahasuares.  I knew after sharing one hamantashen that I had met my soulmate. After almost fifty years of marriage, we are proud to have raised two children who enjoy reading, learning, and traveling as much as we do. We are also forever grateful to them for finding mates whom we love and for each providing to us with our three special grandchildren whom we adore.

Since retiring from a 30-year career in adult education, I am now writing down my own family stories as well as the accounts of ordinary people with extraordinary lives. I have been a regular contributor to the bi-weekly publication, The Jewish World (Capital Region, New York), since 2013. My articles have also been published in (Orlando) Heritage Florida Jewish News, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and several websites including The Forward, the Union of Reform Judaism, Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, the (London, England) Memorial Scrolls Trust, Growing Bolder, the USA Pickleball Association, and Jewish Women of Words (Australia).  I am the author of three compilation of my stories, There Goes My Heart (2016); Tikkun Olam: Stories of Repairing an Unkind World. (2018); and Keep Calm and Bake Challah: How I Survived the Pandemic, Politics, Pratfalls, and Other of Life’s Problems (June 2023) . My fourth book, Fradel’s Story(August 2021), is a collection of essays written with my mother about our lives as the descendants of Jewish immigrants, our lives in a small town in Upstate New York, and, after her passing, my later family adventures in Florida, Colorado, and California. I am currently working on my fifth book, which will be called Under the Shelter of Butterfly Wings: Stories of Jewish Sacrifice, Survival, and Strength, a collection of biographies of Jewish immigrants, Holocaust survivors, Righteous Gentiles, and others with extraordinary stories to share. All  published books are available onAmazon in both paperback and Kindle format. My blog is theregoesmyheart.me. I can be reached at my author email, shapcomp18@gmail.com.

I am following in the footsteps of my mother, Frances Cohen, who at the age of 88, joined a writer’s group at her independent living residence and finally wrote down her stories. In honor of my mother, this blog includes her stories as well as mine. Enjoy them, and feel free to comment on my blog or via my email at shapcomp18@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you!

Warmly,

Marilyn Cohen Shapiro