This is Josephine Wolff, Sheila’s granddaughter and blogmaster, and I’m writing to inform her blog readership that Sheila passed away Wednesday afternoon. In the final years of her life, this blog was a source of immense joy to Sheila and the idea that there were people reading and responding to her writing was always incredibly important to her. As I organize and go through the files on her computer, I hope that I will turn up some unpublished blog pieces and may continue to post a few of them over the next few weeks.
Sheila was a truly phenomenal woman, an incredibly loving and wonderful grandmother, and first and foremost, always a writer. She believed writing was one of the most important things in the whole world, she wrote fiction and nonfiction her whole life long, and even (at my insistence) agreed to conquer the blogosphere despite her distrust of all things technological. My thanks to all of you for reading, commenting on, and enjoying some of her final pieces of writing. She will be dearly remembered and sorely missed.
blogging grandma 
Thank you for sharing about your grandmother. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her blog.
Oh, Josephine. Thank you so much for posting on Sheila’s blog. I was a devoted reader, and was always so gratified when Sheila wrote back – usually by email, because she said the mechanics of blog posting and commenting confounded her! I loved our email correspondence — even online Sheila always sounded like Sheila!
I first met Sheila when she and husband Mort brought Perri to Harvard to move into our freshman dorm in 1974. I thought they were all “very New York.” That winter I went home with Perri during Reading Period and we stayed at their home in Leonia, New Jersey. Sheila cooked curry, and it was the first time I had ever tried it. We ate sitting cross-legged on the floor, and there were little bowls of nuts and raisins and coconut to put on the curry.
Sheila was one of a kind, and her strong voice carried through her writing to the end.
I’m flying to NYC next weekend and look forward to seeing you and the entire family then.
Much love,
Gersh
We so loved your mother’s column. She was an inspiration. What a wonderful legacy.
Thanks for letting us know about Blogging Grandma. I subscribed to this blog immediately after reading her funny, but cranky, piece in the NY Times and enjoyed reading her subsequent blogs. I found her amusing, funny, wise, and appreciative of life’s joys, even if at times she appeared cantankerous or, shall I say, obsessively thrifty. Her writing was always lively. I am sorry for your loss and will miss reading her posts.
So sorry to hear this news,sad today! I will miss her wonderful way of story telling.God Bless
I will miss these blog entries. I lived reading about this wonderfully independent woman. I was so glad to have found her. Your family has my sincere sympathies.
Thanks so much for letting “Grandma’s” blog followers know about her death. Seems as though the good ones always go away. Sincerely….
Oh dear, my sincerest condolences and as well appreciation for reaching out to all of us who wait eagerly for the next word from “our” blogging grandma. Sharing thoughts and experiences as we travel this strange land of “old” country is as welcomed as the very best travel guide to decode a language we were unprepared for.
Ah thanks for letting all of us in cyber space know -:) maybe you could a life story with photos when you are ready RIP Sheila
I am truly stunned. My sincerest condolences to you and your family. May she rest in peace. She made a positive difference in the lives of many people even in the sunset of her years.
I am sorry to hear about Sheila. My husband and I were friends of Phil & Fruma’s in Pittsburgh & we met her at least twice. She was a lovely woman. Condolences to Perri and the rest of the family.
My sincere condolences to you and your family. Your grandmother will be missed by many. Thank you for providing the technological and other detaills for the blog. It was unique, which is something your writing grandma would appreciate. Thank you for sharing this sad and unwanted news,
Josephine, thank you so much for providing Sheila with the technical expertise to create this wonderful blog. And thank you also for sharing word of her passing. What a fine example she was of living life to its fullest, even as advancing age took its inevitable toll. I will miss her..
Josephine,
It was only this past summer that I found your grandmother’s blog and I have enjoyed her entries immensely, reading them afar from way out here in Portland, Oregon. Right from the start I loved her tag line, “5 years older than the A train”. I knew with that sense of humor this was a blog for me.
Sheila has inspired a grandma in South Africa to regain courage,
tackle a writing course and to reclaim her life. Thank you for sharing a remarkable woman.
I’m really sorry about ur loss. I read about her when I saw her piece in the NY times. She was funny, witty and smart and I wish I had known her on a personal level. My deepest condolences. she is at a better place and I beleive she is smiling down at us.
I send my sympathies on the loss of your beloved Grandmother.
Sheila brought a terrific sense of humor and a great practical outlook on life to her many blog readers. From reading these past months, I thought she must have had a terrific satisfying life.
I am so sad. I’ve just discovered blogginggrandma by reading one of her last post, “A very ungrateful old lady” on Facebook. I was jumping for joy. Finally, someone who understood how I felt about being a “getting older” 75. I will read all her posts and learn. My sincere condolences to you, her loving family.
Thank you so much for encouraging your grandmother to have a blog and for letting us know that she has passed on. I also heard about her in the NYTimes, and started reading her blog after that. She was wonderful, an inspiration, one of those feisty NY ladies that deal with life so totally. My condolences to you and your family. If you do find more pieces to publish on the blog, that would be great!
I was so sorry to read your news. I thought that your grandmother’s blog was one of the very best on the web–literate, funny and insightful. My condolences.
Josephine,
Thank you for letting us know about Sheila’s death. You and your family have my sympathy. Hers will be a large space to fill in your lives. I only recently came to her blog but enjoyed it immensely. So glad she was among us for a while. I would have loved to hear more from her.
I will miss her writings very much as I always looked forward to checking in for her latest blog. She became very much a part of my world and I wish I had known her. She was a gift in our spinning world.
This is quite extraordinary.
I am also being helped by a kind nephew to set up a Blog. I live in England he lives in North Carolina. I too am old but still lucid (so people tell me)
My Blog which should take off early May 2014 will be
HE’S LATE Y’KNOW
Dear Josephine
You have given another Grandmother hope and inspiration
I am sorry for your loss. I love blogs and just found your Grandmother’s. I will enjoy reading it. I think I would have liked to have known her.