Amy Saltz

Amy R. Saltz of Marblehead 62 passed on February 26, 2023. After surviving a devastating suicide attempt during adolescence, Amy devoted her life to the quest for healing and paying it forward with gratitude. A natural outgrowth of her healing work was the writing and publishing of the award-winning books, An Essential Song , Finding the Song: Living After Attempting Suicide, and The Song Endures: Drumming With a Different Beat. A fourth book entitled The Song’s Resonance has recently been published.

Amy was dedicated to her clients. She was also the librarian and a steadfast volunteer at Temple Emanu-El. She volunteered for many community organizations, including Marblehead Counseling Center, Anchor To Windward, Marblehead AIDS Awareness, and Abbot Public Library. She delivered Schwartz Rounds to caregivers at local hospitals and presented seminars to psychologists in training at Mass General Brigham and to psychiatry residents at Tufts Medical Center. The most significant elements she brought to her volunteer activities were inclusion, encouragement, and joyfulness. Amy’s spirit loved to play, deeply connected to music, grooved on learning percussion, hands down treasured teaching mah jongg, immersed in calligraphy, applauded all kinds of theater/cinema, and delighted in taking her many glorious bike rides.

Amy is survived by her immediate family (Roberta Frost Rosenthal, Jimmy Saltz, Lynne Saltz, Ziggy Saltz, and Judy, Kyle & Bryce Kowalczyk) and her extended family and the families of her deceased former husband Leon Wisel and late partner Benjamin Harsip. She was the daughter of the late Robert M. Saltz. Amy forever honors her healers: bereavement counselor Judy Seifert, trauma specialist Sandra Phinney, and physician Harvey Zarren.

These words from The Little Prince had profound meaning for Amy during her life: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Donations in Amy’s memory may be made to Finding the Song: Restricted Fund For Suicidal Individuals or Those In Need c/o Marblehead Counseling Center, 66 Clifton Avenue in Marblehead or to Temple Emanu-El, 393 Atlantic Avenue in Marblehead.

Friends and family are invited to a virtual memorial service on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 4:00PM. To access the memorial service, please join on zoom with this link and meeting details below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2356882603?pwd=Tm1odkwvTmRVU2cvKzhtaXc0VWNlQT09

Meeting ID: 235 688 2603

Passcode: 378322