When we think of our Aunt Slyvia we will always have so many wonderful memories filled with love that we spent with her and Uncle Joe and all the family.  From Hillside, Beach Haven and off to Florida so many wonderful memories.  With all our love to our entire family for the lose we all share.  Tammie, Alan, Samantha & Robert.

A very special person throughout my life.  Always there for our family.  Our love and sympathy to Uncle Joe, Jeffrey, Michal, Michael, and Sheryl.  Rob Green and family.

Part of the remembrances at the funeral:
Jeff:   Sylvia Ram was My Mom.  She was born in 1915 in Pshemeshel, Poland, orphaned at a young age, and literally saved from the holocaust by her Uncle Max and Aunt Becky who brought her and her sister Adele to the United States in 1923.  Her brothers Mendel and Leon remained in Poland.  Mendel perished and Leon survived but lost his family in the holocaust and came to America after the war.
Sylvia Ram was someone who  was always willing to speak her mind.  She always had an idea about what should be done, and she let all of us know what she thought and pushed us to do it. 
My mom.  To hear her tell it, when she and my Dad first got married my Dad was quite willing to stay at home in the evenings and relax but she didn't think that was enough of a life.  So, when they asked for volunteers for the cubscout packmaster, she volunteered……That is, she volunteered Dad!
My mom was a wonderful example to me of being active and being a leader in Jewish activities.  My parents were founding members of a new synagogue in Hillside, New Jersey--the Conservative Congregation of Hillside, later named Temple Shomrei Torah.  When the Congregation needed a Sisterhood, she took the leadership in founding it and became the Temple's first Sisterhood president.  I knew that she and my Dad were also active in Hadassah and Bnai Brith, so for me, being involved in Jewish organizations was like being a fish in water--it was just always around, something you were in, and if something needed to get done, the Ram's were the people who could take the lead doing it.  She organized the Women of Valor luncheons for the Hadassah Florida Atlantic Region for many years. When she and my Dad lived at Golden Lakes many people knew her as “Mrs. Hadassah” of Golden Lakes.  [Mike remarks here]
Jeff:   We remember Sylvia Ram for how she strengthened the foundation of our house and our home.  In fact she quite literally strengthened the foundation of the house we built in Baywood.  Canned tuna was a favorite meal to serve for lunch to our many friends and relatives who came to help and enjoy building the house.  And besides…the cans could be used as metal reinforcing in the cement block foundation as it was being built.  [Mike remarks here]
Jeff:  More than riches, Sylvia Ram preferred people.  With a choice between buying a mink coat or spending money on travel, her choice was: “Travel!”  To her, life was more enriched by people than by things   When I was about four, we took two long car trips to Florida to visit relatives, and we had several wonderful vacation trips to Maine, where she cooked up the most wonderful yellow perch that my Dad and the relatives and friends we traveled with caught in the early mornings on Fairview Lake. [Mike remarks here].  
Jeff:  She and my Dad traveled to many other places after they retired.  She traveled with Dad to Panama (twice!), Cozumel, the ABC cruise to Curacao, Israel (7 times, including for my wedding with about a one week notice!), Scandinavia, France, Spain, England, annual travels to Elder Hostel and similar programs in Madison, Duluth, and elsewhere, and an especially wonderful one month tour of the Far East to Sri Lanka, Indonesia including Bali, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan.  Always on these trips she spoke readily to strangers to learn about their lives, and she once managed, almost unintentionally, to talk their way into an invitation to a wedding in Japan. 
    A wonderful trip of theirs for me was their driving a used Ford Fairlane that they purchased from Bob Green out to me in California in February, 1969—a fast auto trip (Mom drove >80 mph part of the way) through the boring, west  Texas route to avoid the winter weather.
Perhaps I didn't appreciate the accomplishments of her work life as much as I should have, but the types of jobs she had while she lived in New Jersey seem to me now to have been perfectly suited to her outgoing and inquisitive personality.  She started in retail sales at Ohrbachs, not to make a “career” but mainly to make some needed money.  Later she did market research by telephone and personal interviews for some of the big polling firms, such as Roper and Gallup--I remember that she once coralled me into helping her do interviews at a shopping mall and when I started the survey, on cigarettes, someone handed me a card with a list of about 20 reasons why people shouldn't smoke--I don't recall any of them being health related, but I do recall some line about them turning your teeth and hands yellow!  Perhaps that's why I refused to go buy her cigarettes one time when she asked me to (actually, I think I was just rebellious, but with a good excuse).  
[Mike remarks here about the polling jobs]
When Mom went to work at Saks Fifth Avenue in Millburn, New Jersey in the children's department, she became quite successful, eventually heading the department, doing buying, and supervising a staff of about ten salespeople. 
However, working at Saks seemed like no big thing to her, and she easily gave it up and retired when she and my Dad moved to Florida.
Despite the physical weakness, my Mom was a strong woman up to the end.  She held her problems with a personal strength.  When the problems with her leg and other health issues made her depressed and she almost gave up, she rallied and gave us many more years of caring and love.  She lived with her losses, and until the end she retained her strength of character and curiosity.
Sylvia Ram lived a worthwhile life, and she made the lives of others around her, including my Dad, her other relatives, and her friends, worth living.  We will miss her.

A long and fulfilled life leaving many loved ones behind who miss you so much.  I will not forget the photograph of you and my now departed greyhound, Barney, or the many Pesach celebrations we had as a family. --Steven Greenberg

Aunt Sylvia, Thank you for always making me feel loved and spoiled as if I was your very own grandchild. I will always cherish our shopping trips and the time you spent teaching me bridge, even if I could not play as well as you would have liked. I just loved spending the time with you. You will be forever in my heart and memories. 

Uncle Joe, thank you for sharing Aunt Sylvia with me and for being a loving grandfather figure. I am sending you all my love, hugs, and warm wishes. I just viewed the slide show CD from your 90th birthday, and enjoyed telling Matt (my boyfriend) about you and Aunt Sylvia. What a wonderful way to celebrate Aunt Sylvia's life!

Great Aunt Sylvia was a legacy in her own time!  She was such a unique woman, with a shining personality that has passed down to her children and grandchildren in turn.  We always loved talking to her, joking and laughing with her. No matter what, she always made you smile. Her memory will be a blessing to all of us and personally, she and Uncle Joe will always be our role models of how to live a fulfilled and meaningful life!  Our love and prayers are with all of you,  Barbara, Fernand, Suzanne, Danielle Elbeze and Aidan Elbeze Bailey,  (her great, great grand nephew)

Remembered with much love. Our thoughts are with all of you, especially Uncle Joe.

OBITUARY

Sylvia Ram

18 November, 1915 – 27 February, 2012

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