26 | OCTOBER 28 • 2021

W

hen Shari Finsilver was 19
years old, she was eating
a holiday dinner with her
family when her spoon flew out of her
hand, landing across the room. Her mom
was horrified. “She really thought I had
Parkinson’s disease and rushed me to a
neurologist,” explains Finsilver.
As a young girl, Finsilver had become
adept at hiding her Essential Tremor
(ET), a condition which is believed to
affect 5% of the population, and which
varies widely in severity. Some people
have a tremor in their hands and arms,
others might have it in their head or
other body parts.
Finsilver had first noticed the condition
when she started art classes in middle

school: Unlike other children, she was
incapable of drawing a straight line. As
she got older, the Orchard Lake resident
became an expert at making adaptations
to normal activities most of us take for
granted. “In high school I learned to put
paper on a clipboard and balance the
board on the edge of a desk and write
at an angle,” she explains. “I mostly ate
sandwiches when I was out so I could
balance my elbows on the table, and I’d
never eat soup. I used a straw for drinks.
Like many sufferers, I was very good at
working out how to disguise my symp-
toms.”
Finsilver’s remarkable story, which
includes deep brain stimulation surgery,
will be shared at the 13th Annual JVS

Human Services Trade Secrets event,
which raises money for Women to Work,
a program which has been changing
women’s lives since the 1980s by provid-
ing important skills to women needing
immediate employment. Finsilver is
this year’s Honorary Chair and keynote
speaker at the Nov. 11 event, invited
because of the dedication she has shown
in advocating for fellow ET sufferers, and
for the courage she has shown in reclaim-
ing her life.
Paul Blatt, CEO of JVS Human
Services, described Finsilver as a brave
and inspiring woman. “So many of the
women utilizing Women to Work have
faced incredibly tough circumstances, but
their strength and drive allowed them to
move forward and reinvent their lives.
Helping remove barriers to work and pro-
viding access to necessary trainings for
this community is our commitment and
our honor at JVS,” Blatt said.
“Shari has used her own life circum-
stances to overcome obstacles and be a
voice to help others do the same. This
passion embodies the mission of Women
to Work.”

A BRAVE JOURNEY
Essential Tremor often runs in families.
In Finsilver’s case, her father’s aunt had a
severe tremor, her father a less severe one.
“My father used to say his tremor was
something from the war,” says Finsilver,
whose own son also has a mild tremor.
At the age of 19, after the spoon inci-
dent, the neurologist diagnosed Finsilver
quickly. “That was actually unusual as
most patients have to see many doctors
before they get an answer to what is
going on, but he immediately knew it was
Essential Tremor,” explained Finsilver.
She was given the drug Librium to help
manage her symptoms, but the drug did
little to help so she stopped taking it.
Finsilver married Stanley, now her hus-
band of 50 years, and the couple had two
children, Brett and Amy. “My husband
and kids were fantastic, doing everything
they could to help me, but it was a strug-
gle,” she says. When the kids were babies,

OUR COMMUNITY

COURTESY OF JVS HUMAN SERVICES

JVS Human Services Trade Secrets event
features keynote speaker with an inspiring
medical journey.

Women
Reinventing
Themselves

ALISON SCHWARTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Shari Finsilver danc-
ing bolero in her first
national Fred Astaire
competition with
teacher and partner
Mykhailo Annienkov
in 2019