The Grande Dame - M&B's 101-Year-Old Client Passes Away

It was one of those quotes that you know you’ll never forget.

“I tell people that my longevity is due to Estée Lauder and good genes, but I think I need to add massage to that, too.”

That’s how Anne Shapira, featured in our September/October 2015 issue of Massage & Bodywork, explained away the fact that at 101 years old, both her appearance and her spirit seemed decades younger. She attributed much of that good health to receiving regular massage since 1996.

Shapira’s longtime massage therapist, Pat Sazy, called a few weeks back to relay the sad news that this matriarch of Heaven Hill Distilleries in Louisville, Kentucky, had passed away on August 6, 2017, at 103. Sazy wanted us to know that Shapira’s rabbi quoted the 2015 Massage & Bodywork article in his eulogy honoring this most amazing massage client. “I was overwhelmed,” Sazy told us.

As I interviewed Shapira for that 2015 article, I was immediately taken with her wit and Southern charm; she was no-nonsense and warmhearted all at once. At the time, Sazy told me that even at 101, Shapira was still heavily involved in the family business, as well as taking time to check in on the welfare of her younger neighbors, travel, and attend community and social events. She was #lifegoals to be sure.

It was a privilege to have crossed paths with Anne Shapira.

We offer our condolences to her family and all those who knew and loved her.

Aleha HaShalom.

Here is the original article about Anne Shapira, as featured in Massage & Bodywork.