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Seven Days of Shiva: Forty-six years of puppy love
An unforgettable memoir about a romance that will make you smile, laugh, and cry - not always in that order.
Seized with grief at the loss of his beloved and vibrant wife, Barbara, after a thirty-year battle with breast cancer, Marc Gellman does the only thing he finds he can do. He starts telling stories. This unique memoir is much more than a tribute to a departed love. Their story shows how a cancer journey seamlessly entwines through a four decades-long love story.
A lifelong raconteur and jokester, Marc spent their forty-six-year relationship making Barbara laugh. He'd do anything to make Barbara's gorgeous face break into the cute, dimpled smile he first saw once upon a time, in 1964, when a fourteen-year-old boy from Brooklyn met a twelve-year-old girl from The Bronx and they fell in love.
Surrounded by family and friends for seven days of sitting Shiva, Marc recounts his fairytale love story with Barbara, from their teenage meeting in the 1960s Rockaways summer scene, to being early marrieds in New York City, to suburban parenting, and to life as an urban couple relishing their empty nest. Once it appears, Barbara's courageous, grueling, determined, hope-filled fight against a brutal disease is unflinchingly depicted.
With candor and humor, laughter and tears, Marc shares the tales of a life both wildly charmed and excruciatingly challenging. Theirs is a life full of parties and singing and celebration, and a life of hard work raising three lively children while managing two demanding, deeply rewarding careers. It's a life of playful adventures and hijinks, of making the most of every silly moment in even the most serious of times. A life of standing up to every challenge together, and dancing close whenever they can.
Observing their singular, remarkable romance through "Shiva Eyes," Marc uncovers a depth to their love he'd never fully grasped, and a strength in Barbara he'd never fully understood. For all the trials that cancer brought into their lives, he discovers a happily-ever-after born of laughter, devotion, faith, and above all, a teenage puppy love that only grew with each passing year.
Seized with grief at the loss of his beloved and vibrant wife, Barbara, after a thirty-year battle with breast cancer, Marc Gellman does the only thing he finds he can do. He starts telling stories. This unique memoir is much more than a tribute to a departed love. Their story shows how a cancer journey seamlessly entwines through a four decades-long love story.
A lifelong raconteur and jokester, Marc spent their forty-six-year relationship making Barbara laugh. He'd do anything to make Barbara's gorgeous face break into the cute, dimpled smile he first saw once upon a time, in 1964, when a fourteen-year-old boy from Brooklyn met a twelve-year-old girl from The Bronx and they fell in love.
Surrounded by family and friends for seven days of sitting Shiva, Marc recounts his fairytale love story with Barbara, from their teenage meeting in the 1960s Rockaways summer scene, to being early marrieds in New York City, to suburban parenting, and to life as an urban couple relishing their empty nest. Once it appears, Barbara's courageous, grueling, determined, hope-filled fight against a brutal disease is unflinchingly depicted.
With candor and humor, laughter and tears, Marc shares the tales of a life both wildly charmed and excruciatingly challenging. Theirs is a life full of parties and singing and celebration, and a life of hard work raising three lively children while managing two demanding, deeply rewarding careers. It's a life of playful adventures and hijinks, of making the most of every silly moment in even the most serious of times. A life of standing up to every challenge together, and dancing close whenever they can.
Observing their singular, remarkable romance through "Shiva Eyes," Marc uncovers a depth to their love he'd never fully grasped, and a strength in Barbara he'd never fully understood. For all the trials that cancer brought into their lives, he discovers a happily-ever-after born of laughter, devotion, faith, and above all, a teenage puppy love that only grew with each passing year.
570 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2021
About the author
Marc Gellman
2 books1 followerMarc was born at Unity Hospital on St John’s Place in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up in the East New York section in the 1950s/’60s, most of his world existed on the block where he lived. It was a close-knit neighborhood of Polish Jews. Almost exactly in the middle of the block was a large synagogue (East New York Jewish Center) and on the two northern and two southern corners were retail stores. The homes, consisting mostly of two- and four-family dwellings, often housed three generations of one family. It was a great neighborhood for a kid; most of Marc’s friends lived on the block.
Marc’s family—mom, dad and older brother—vacationed in the Rockaways in Queens, NY. It was a summertime beach community, with a mix of bungalows and three-story rooming houses. From the first Saturday, after the last day of school, the family would travel to the Rockaways for the entire summer, until a few days after Labor Day.
It was in the Rockaways where Marc met the future love of his life, when he was fourteen and Barbara was twelve. Upon first meeting her, Marc was oblivious to any possibility of dating that cute, dimple-faced girl. It would be later on that he worked up the courage to ask her out.
On the day of his sixteenth birthday, Marc started his working career as a clerk at the Big Apple Supermarket on Church Avenue, Brooklyn. He earned maybe ninety cents an hour and additional money from a side business of his own, which he created at the supermarket. He would carry shoppers’ packages out of the store and load up their car. Marc would be tipped a nickel, dime, or fifteen cents and, on very rare occasions, a quarter. He earned enough for a Saturday night date, with pocket money left over for the week.
As a young boy, Marc had an interest in watching the construction of buildings. When anything was being built in his neighborhood, he would excitedly visit the site after school and monitor the construction progress each day. He went on to attend CCNY School of Architecture in Manhattan.
While attending college, Marc became a licensed real estate salesperson, selling homes in the northeast Bronx and later in Woodhaven, Queens. He married, one week after his twenty-second birthday and two weeks before Barbara’s twentieth birthday. Yes, Barbara was still nineteen, on their wedding day.
After graduation, the couple moved to New Jersey, where Marc worked for a home builder and where they raised their three children, in a rural northwest suburb. Marc continued his career as staff architect for a Newark, New Jersey-based management and consulting firm, where he continues to work, after over forty years.
Although a busy man, between work and family, Marc is particularly proud of his volunteer work starting in the late 1990s. As Co-Chairperson of the Mount Olive High School Diversity Counsel, the success of the counsel at the high school inspired Marc and his co-chair to encourage such counsels in all of the township schools. Marc and his co-chair eventually took on the role of Chairpersons of the Mount Olive Human Relations Commission and were applauded for their work by the then-Mayor of Newark, Sharpe James.
Marc’s family—mom, dad and older brother—vacationed in the Rockaways in Queens, NY. It was a summertime beach community, with a mix of bungalows and three-story rooming houses. From the first Saturday, after the last day of school, the family would travel to the Rockaways for the entire summer, until a few days after Labor Day.
It was in the Rockaways where Marc met the future love of his life, when he was fourteen and Barbara was twelve. Upon first meeting her, Marc was oblivious to any possibility of dating that cute, dimple-faced girl. It would be later on that he worked up the courage to ask her out.
On the day of his sixteenth birthday, Marc started his working career as a clerk at the Big Apple Supermarket on Church Avenue, Brooklyn. He earned maybe ninety cents an hour and additional money from a side business of his own, which he created at the supermarket. He would carry shoppers’ packages out of the store and load up their car. Marc would be tipped a nickel, dime, or fifteen cents and, on very rare occasions, a quarter. He earned enough for a Saturday night date, with pocket money left over for the week.
As a young boy, Marc had an interest in watching the construction of buildings. When anything was being built in his neighborhood, he would excitedly visit the site after school and monitor the construction progress each day. He went on to attend CCNY School of Architecture in Manhattan.
While attending college, Marc became a licensed real estate salesperson, selling homes in the northeast Bronx and later in Woodhaven, Queens. He married, one week after his twenty-second birthday and two weeks before Barbara’s twentieth birthday. Yes, Barbara was still nineteen, on their wedding day.
After graduation, the couple moved to New Jersey, where Marc worked for a home builder and where they raised their three children, in a rural northwest suburb. Marc continued his career as staff architect for a Newark, New Jersey-based management and consulting firm, where he continues to work, after over forty years.
Although a busy man, between work and family, Marc is particularly proud of his volunteer work starting in the late 1990s. As Co-Chairperson of the Mount Olive High School Diversity Counsel, the success of the counsel at the high school inspired Marc and his co-chair to encourage such counsels in all of the township schools. Marc and his co-chair eventually took on the role of Chairpersons of the Mount Olive Human Relations Commission and were applauded for their work by the then-Mayor of Newark, Sharpe James.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 17, 2024
This is a very personal memoir, made up of stories starting with early teenage years when Marc and Barbara first met. The stories were maybe only meant for family or close friends.
I almost never leave a book unfinished, so even though I didn't like it after the first couple of chapters I decided to keep reading, to see if it got any better, especially once cancer was found. The second day was minimally better. In all honesty, I didn't finish the book as life is short and there's a lot of really good books out there that I want to read.
I'm not sure why I had reserved this book. I must have seen a review of it somewhere. The title looked interesting and I have also lost my spouse. But mostly I found this book to be a waste of reading time.
I almost never leave a book unfinished, so even though I didn't like it after the first couple of chapters I decided to keep reading, to see if it got any better, especially once cancer was found. The second day was minimally better. In all honesty, I didn't finish the book as life is short and there's a lot of really good books out there that I want to read.
I'm not sure why I had reserved this book. I must have seen a review of it somewhere. The title looked interesting and I have also lost my spouse. But mostly I found this book to be a waste of reading time.
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July 16, 2024Can an ordinary life be extraordinary? It depends on the lens through which one views it. In the case of Marc Gellman, that lens is Shiva Eyes and the life is the one he describes in his powerful and unforgettable memoir, Seven Days of SHIVA.
Read the full review on BookTrib.com
Read the full review on BookTrib.com
May 21, 2026
Such a beautiful love story of two young people and their journey through life together. This book did have special meaning to me because I knew Barbara Meltzer Gellman. While we were not close friends growing up, I remember her as always and sweet and it gave hers and Marc's love story special meaning. It also brought up so many memories from my early years in Jackson Heights NY.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews