Deborah Levy

The Memorial Service for Deborah Levy will be live-streamed on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 11:00am via the following link: https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/167589514 .

WORCESTER - Deborah Levy, beloved daughter, sister, aunt and friend, died peacefully from a pulmonary embolism on September 15, 2022, at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center (University Campus). She is survived by a brother, David (Keily), of Washington, D.C.; a brother, Jonathan (Nancy Stone) of Portland, OR; a sister, Judith Yaldatel (Kenneth Rodgers), of Cape Cod; and a niece, nephews and cousins.

Born in Boston in 1956 to the late Harold and Lillian Levy, she grew up in Shrewsbury and graduated from Shrewsbury High School in 1974. As a child, Deborah was kind, caring, and a top student. In high school, she made All-State orchestra on viola, earned a perfect score on the French achievement test, and gained admission to Cornell University. She planned to take premed courses and become a doctor. William Nolen, who wrote "Making of a Surgeon," was her hero.

Unfortunately, she had a psychiatric breakdown her first semester in college. She spent the next year at McLean Hospital in Belmont, and spent the rest of her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals and halfway houses, regular hospitals, and care facilities. She watched, stuck at the starting gate, as her siblings finished college and graduate school, had careers, married, and raised families. None of these things, which she badly wanted, came to be.

Over the years, there were ever-changing labels and diagnoses for her mental illness: bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. She also had breast cancer in early middle age and a host of other major physical ailments. She was prescribed enough drugs to open a pharmacy. The one constant was that medical science could not give her back a normal life. After several decades in the Boston area, she moved into the Jewish Healthcare Center in Worcester in 2021.

Despite her setbacks, Debby never lost her kindness, empathy and optimism. She found pleasure in simple things: family visits; looking at pictures of her brothers and their wives and children; outings with caregivers; and arts and crafts. She made friends wherever she lived. She enjoyed making or buying small gifts for family and friends. And she loved music. We can still hear her gleefully singing the start of the Prelude of Bach's first cello suite. Now she is at peace.

Family and friends will gather for a Memorial Service at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 22, at the Jewish Healthcare Center, 629 Salisbury Street, Worcester. Arrangements are under the care of Miles Funeral Home of Holden. For details, live-streaming information and updates visit www.milesfuneralhome.com or call (508) 829-4434. A Memorial Observance Reception will be announced at the service.

Memorial contributions may be made to National Alliance on Mental Illness, 4301 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 300, Arlington VA 22203 ( www.nami.org ), or Joy of Music Program, One Gorham Street, Worcester MA 01605 ( www.jomp.org ).