Shirley Resnick Baer

Shirley Baer (nee Resnick) died on 16 January, 2022 after a 13 year bout with Alzheimers but an awesome, 89-year love-filled life. Shirley was born 05 November, 1932, the second daughter of Morris and Frances Resnick, both of whom were refugees from the turmoil in the former Soviet Union. They made a home for her and her older sister Edith on the fourth floor of an apartment building on the corner of Flatbush and East 18th in Brooklyn. Shirley attended Erasmus High School and went on to Brooklyn City College to get a degree in Sociology. While working as a buyer for Macy’s, she went on a ski weekend where she met a fellow named John Baer, a refugee himself from the Holocaust in Germany. They announced their engagement on 24 March, 1955 and were married 26 June of the same year. John famously told her that he would marry her on one of their first trips to the dance floor.

And dance they did. John was a chemical engineer employed by the US Army and they started their life together with him being drafted and stationed at Fort Dix, NJ After his enlistment, they moved to Philadelphia and subsequently Levittown, where they had three kids: Jeffrey, 1957; Edwin, 1959; and Susan, 1962. Then John got a job at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1963 and Shirley loaded up the family and moved them to a wooded lot in Bel Air MD where she raised them, chased them, cooked for them, and drove them to all manner of sports and temple activities.

In 1976, John and Shirley did their final move to Northern Virginia and with the kids on their way to adulthood, Shirley really got going. National Symphony, Washington Opera, Showhouse Chair, ushering at all the musical venues in the DC area, cooking for “So Others May Eat”, Olam Tikvah Sisterhood, book club, League of Women Voters, interfaith groups. Shirley did it all, and with unconditional love. She became the matriarch, known to her five grandchildren (Zach, Jason, Sydney, Mackenzie and Max) as Gramma, Nana, Shirlgirl, and maker of the best scrambled eggs, brisket, salmon, and Pesach chocolate cake known to man.

With John’s passing in December, 2014, Shirley’s forgetfulness and disorientation became clear as the onset of Alzheimers but it did not stop her from remaining loving, caring, and a smiling, happy soul, even being moved from her home to an assisted living facility. She remained gracious, kind, and responsive to a gentle touch, a warm nuzzle, and a murmured word of adoration from all that visited. She will be missed more than words can say but we’ll think of her everytime we enter the kitchen and know she’s in a better place. We’re all blessed for having known her.

Shirley is preceded in death by her parents, Frances & Morris Resnick, her sister, Edith Segal, and her husband, John Baer; and is survived by her three beloved children, Jeff (Naomi) Baer, Ed (Cami) Baer, and Susie (Steve) Aaron; and her five grandchildren, Zachary Baer, Sydney, Jason & Mackenzie Baer, and Maximillian Aaron.