Barbara Shapiro

Barbara was born on January 9, 1924 in the Bronx, NY. Her parents, Mary (Berman) and Max Duchan, owned a butcher shop. She had a happy childhood. After graduating high school, Barbara learned shorthand and became a secretary. When she was 17, she met the love of her life, Herb, at a neighborhood dance. When she was 19, she and Herb married shortly before he was to be shipped out to the Pacific theatre of WWII. While Herb was overseas, he wrote to her every day and she wrote to him twice a day. It was a romance that would remain romantic for the rest of their 65 years together.

Barbara and Herb had their first child, Madelyn (Allison) in 1947. They were living with Barbara’s parents then but in the early 1950’s they got a place of their own in Queens. Their second child, Mitchell, was born in 1950 and the third, Douglas, in 1954. In 1956, they moved to Long Island. In 1968, when her youngest was in high school, Barbara returned to the workforce as a secretary to an engineering firm where she remained until her retirement. And during the 1970’s and 1980’s Barbara and Herb traveled much of the world together.

Barbara’s mother, who had alzheimer’s disease, lived with them for 8 years at the end of her life. Barbara was also a caregiver and close friend of her mother-in-law, Nellie. In 1975, when Herb had an opportunity to fulfill a dream by becoming a judge, he hesitated because it meant a pay cut, and it was Barbara who insisted he accept the opportunity.

Barbara and Herb had a close group of friends on Long Island and when they moved to Florida after retirement they made many new friends and were fortunate enough to have some old friends move nearby. In Florida Barbara volunteered at a hospital and was an active member of her community’s Jewish Club and Democratic Party club.

After Herb died in 2007, Barbara stayed in Florida living on her own, continuing to drive, shop, manage her home and socialize with friends. After showing early signs of alzheimer’s disease and suffering a serious fall at age 92 she decided to join her two sons and their spouses in Michigan and moved into Glacier Hills residence in early 2016 She was visited regularly by family and her most important caregiver in her final years was her daughter in law, Jeannette Duane, who became her best friend. Despite losing more and more cognitive function over the years, Barbara always remembered her family and never lost the ability to say “I love you.”

In addition to being a loving mother to Madelyn, Mitchell and Douglas, Barbara was also a loving grandmother. She doted on her two grandsons, Ben and Michael, during their visits and they were the apples of her eye.

Barbara dearly loved her sister-in-law Florence who survives her and who has been her friend for 75 years, as well as Florence’s husband Howard. She also loved being an aunt to their children, Arlene Gail (Denise Gellis) and Donna Schneiderman (Bill Ward). And she had a special place in her heart for her children’s spouses, Michael Allison, Carol Patton and Jeannette Duane, taking great pride in the fact that each of her children had long-term successful marriages.

Barbara was a loving and thoughtful mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and friend. We will miss her very much. She will be buried next to her husband at Forest Hills cemetery, 415 Observatory St, Ann Arbor, Michigan on September 1, 2021

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.muehligannarbor.com for the Shapiro family.