In Memoriam

1957-2024

Beth

Beth Firestein Remembered

Celebration and Legacy of Her

Multi-Dimensional Life

Beth was a professional psychologist, wife, horse crazy woman, a daughter, a loving and loyal friend, a sister, lover, a student, an athlete, a life-long learner, a therapist, a business professional, a teacher, and a lover of animals. Passionate about life, art, creativity, horses, and helping and healing others.

Most important to Beth, she wanted three things, to be known, to know her life mattered, and that others benefited because of her presence in their world. And she wants to be remembered vividly after she dies.

Reflecting on her life during the years she lived with cancer, Beth gradually came to realize that the therapy and healing work she did with hundreds of people over 38 years, her professional and personal writing, and the experiences she has shared with others through love and friendship, have set in motion ripples of goodness and inspiration that will last beyond her lifetime, and that is a great comfort to her. Many people were unaware of the breadth and scope of her talents: her paintings, artistic photography, and poetry. This website provides a window into the fullness of Beth’s world.

Since her twenties, her personal goal was to achieve self-actualization, the highest level of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human development. What self-actualization meant to Beth was to live her life in a truly authentic and joyful way and to live in gratitude for all she had been given, and all she had the opportunity to experience. She feels her life has come full circle. She has fulfilled her most important goals and desires and her life is complete. Beth would love to have more life, but she blames no one for the fact she developed cancer. It is no one’s fault, not hers, not God’s. These things just happen to human beings and we all die eventually. The blessing of dying via this illness is that Beth had 2 years and 7 months of additional joyful life beyond her diagnosis, feeling well and enjoying her husband Gene, her brother David and her precious niece Eliana and their family, her horse PJ Ferrari, and her cats, Puna and new family member Kibble.

She and Gene have traveled extensively, camped, hiked and experienced the awe of nature, loved one another thoroughly, and been together in this difficult journey. Her gratitude to Gene is beyond measure. When she died, Beth had no regrets.

Surprisingly, she has been able to see some of the positives of dying in this manner—as opposed to the many burdens of aging that others she loves and others in the world are carrying and will have to carry. In some odd sense, she feels she is getting off easier than many.

She has had time to do things that allow her to “come full circle”, to celebrate her life while she is living, to complete her book about the Wise Women’s Group, which is a significant and recent part of her legacy, express her feelings to those she cares deeply for, give special gifts to those she cares about.

While Beth wishes she had another 15 or 20 years to enjoy and experience life on this plane, she has come to a place of acceptance about her death.

Beth’s Professional Contributions

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Beth's Art, Writing, & Photos

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Beth’s Art & Photography

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Beth’s Personal Photo Gallery

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Beth’s Poetry & Writings

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