Crash victims mourned

Eron Ben-Yehuda

WESTMINSTER -- Hundreds attended a memorial service Wednesday for Sheila

Jaffee, a victim of the EgyptAir jet crash.

The parking lot of Temple Beth David was jammed with cars. Mourners, many

in black, slowly streamed in, hugging, consoling, kissing.

Many were there to remember Jaffee, 63, of Huntington Beach.

She was “a beautiful human being who is no longer with us,” said Maureen

Broscow of Cypress. “We’re lucky she was here as long as she was. You

can’t say that about everybody.”

Mourners’ thoughts included others who also perished in the crash.

“I just lost four friends that I’ll never see again,” said Nathan

Dorfman, 73, of Seal Beach.

Judy Bowman, 57, of Huntington Beach, was aboard the flight with Jaffee,

along with Tobey Seidman, 71, of Irvine, and Beverly Grant, 82, of Santa

Ana.

The service for Jaffee was a celebration of life.

The cantor’s deep baritone rang through the temple as he chanted prayers

in Hebrew.

“Let us not say that life was good to us, but that we were good to life,”

said Rabbi Michael Mayersohn.

The women were, indeed, good to life.

Bowman and Jaffee belonged to a group of women who cherished spending

time together. They shared life’s “happy occasions,” the birth of

grandchildren, bar mitzvahs, weddings.

About once a week, Bowman and Jaffee joined the group to play their

favorite card game, Pan, a variation of gin rummy, friends said. They

played for dimes, but the point was to spend time together.

The good times included traveling.

Bowman’s and Jaffee’s passion for traveling took them around the world.

They planned their most recent trip, to the Middle East, for 12 months --

three weeks in Egypt and Israel, a cruise on the Nile, and visits to

Jerusalem and Tiberius.

The trip ended in tragedy as the EgyptAir Jet they were on crashed off

the Massachusetts island of Nantucket early Sunday.

Joan Royal, 62, of Garden Grove, who shared many joyous moments with

Bowman and Jaffee, was too busy to join her friends on the trip. But she

bid them farewell at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday.

“I was the last one to see them and hug them and wish them bon voyage,”

Royal said.

Jaffee’s was a life filled with generosity.

She had a special place in her heart for new immigrants to the United

States, helping them settle in.

And she was always very generous in giving to her temple in Westminster.

Jaffee funded academic scholarships to underprivileged students at the

Hebrew Academy on Willow Lane, said Rabbi Isaac Newman, head of the

academy.

“It’s a real loss to the community,” he said.

And when Jaffee’s adult children started a soap company, she helped them

make cakes of soap in her kitchen, Royal said. “She gave of her time, she

gave of herself.”

This past summer, Bowman celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary with

Max, who worked as the director of community services for Huntington

Beach before he retired in 1990.

“She and Max had something special,” said Jim Engle, deputy director of

community services.

Her life was her family, especially her grandchildren, Royal said.

“She baby-sat for them all the time, above and beyond any grandparent I

know,” she said.

“It’s so difficult to lose one friend. But four -- four is just

devastating,” she said.

Memorial services for Bowman will be held at 11 a.m. today at First

Christian Church, 1207 Main St., Huntington Beach.