I'd like to extend my deepest symphathies to all your family. I was deeply saddened to hear of your loss. My thoughts are with you.
Irisha is here with us, in our hearts, in our lives, forever.
This is the place where you can read about her, look at her pictures and videos, listen to the music that she liked.
Please leave your tribute below, light your candle for her. Also, please add your story, picture, memory about Irisha. Every memory is precious, please share!
Non-Profit "Irina Shekhets Memorial Scholarship Fund” has been set up to help talented students to get into college of their dream. You may visit www.ismsf.org to find out more and help.
Tributes
Leave a tributeI'd like to extend my deepest symphathies to all your family. I was deeply saddened to hear of your loss. My thoughts are with you.
I am shocked and grief stricken to learn of Irina's death, and express profound sorrow and condolences for you and your family.
Love,
Alyunya
With Deepest Sympathy,
Mr. Francis B. Tramutolo
In this time of unbearable tragedy we're sending our deepest condolences, our sympathy and support.
Even though you are not here with us, we feel your presence daily. Your beautiful soul touches us even though our eyes do not meet. We miss you and love you and know you are in the air, breathing over us and guiding our journey. You were, and always will be, perfect in every way, a memory that will never fade. Fly free, Irisha.
Love,
Vera, Elina & Leonid Shekhets
Дай Вам Б-г силы пережить
эту непоправимую утрату.
Больно и несправедливо...
Скорблю с Вами
My deepest condolensces to the Shekhets & Shamis families
My deepest condolensces to the Shekhets/Shamis families.
AK
I feel blessed that our paths crossed through ICS and JPM CI. Thyda and I have to continue eating Koyzina-esque salads and oatmeal to stay healthy... but you'll forever be young.. forever beautiful. Thank you for the memories.
Remember you forever...beatiful, shiny and happy young woman... You are always in my mind, saying me that life is short, enjoy it today, tommorow may not come...
I still have your cell # that you gave me, but now you'll never answer it. I will miss you always.
My heart goes out to the Shekhets-Shamis family.
I look on your pictures again and again. You were a pretty little girl, and now you are a beautiful woman.
You will forever stay beautiful and young. You will forever look on us and smile your quiet smile.
And we will always remember you and keep you in our hearts.
I love you and your wonderful family, and I cry with them.
Memories of you are with me as I take from the past different moments that we shared together.
CEHE4KA
M.
You always had such an appetite for LIFE. For living, and for achieving; FOR ALWAYS BEING THE BEST AND THE CENTER. I will greatly miss you. Please watch over your family at this hard time.
You are in my heart always
-G
always happy-always smiling-it's weird to talk about her in a past sentence-almost unreal-if there are angels she's definitly one of them watching over her friends and family....God rest her soul
If eyes had no tears.
Dance you peaceful dance!
Irochka, your light will always stay with us. You were a beautiful soul dancer. I feel lucky for being able to share those magical dances with you and some spiritual conversations and views beyond just this reality.."We'll keep moving and watch each other turn into light"..Теперь ты на воле, Белая Птица!
Танечка,Боря,Машенька, мы глубоко скорбим с вами.
"Ты - рядом, где-то очень рядом...
Глядишь на нас лучистым взглядом
И улыбаешься...
Но ни дотронуться рукою,
Ни заглянуть в твои глаза
Теперь нельзя...
Ты - с нами, мы - всегда с тобою...
И тихо катиться слеза..."
Ира и Виталий
Will guide us through
The stormy nights.
So tame the seas
With your resounding beauty.
And together, we'll sail home.'
Irochka, you were the light of my life, and of so many others. You were beautiful and intelligent and just beyond compare.
I know that you will rest in peace, because you deserve nothing short of Heaven.
♥ You are in my heart, always and forever. ♥
How dare we may miss you at KSP more?
It is horrible for us to know that you have gone forever physically..but our memory will remember and always being present at KSP as long as we live....
Dear Parents, it is sadness to hear about it tragic, please, accept my condolences...
Love You all and your missing Daughter memory
Lenny
Filinto
Ну как понять эту жизнь?!
Боря, Танечка, Машенька, люблю вас! Мы тоже ваша семья. Держитесь, пожалуйста... Больно, очень больно...
Мое сердце рвется от боли и я разделяю вашу трагедию, Танечка, Боря, Маша! Мои соболезнования всей вашей большой семье. Люблю всех вас.
Неправда, Дочь не умирает
Лишь рядом быть перестает
Leave a Tribute
And yet we're never apart
Every day,
But especially every August 24th
I celebrate you!
And mourn you...
You are so near and yet so far,
You are right here and impossible to touch
What would I give just to hug you!
I miss you always
I love you so much, sis
A singing bowl story
We didn't know what to do with the sound bowl, besides striking it and listening, but there was something about that sound. The bowl was sitting on a decorative cushion, which rested on a coffee table and we couldn't pass by it, without taking the stick and playing the bowl for at least a couple moments. The bowl was receiving so much attention as if it were a member of our small family.
Like a normal couple we had our ups and downs, but every time the bowl made a sound, the atmosphere at home would change for the better, also a more peaceful state of mind was created.
Back then, I was practicing meditation and was reading a lot about the influence of sound on mental, emotional and physical health. I was looking for some art to occupy myself with and knew that it would be related to sound therapy. The field of “sound healing” triggered my attention.
Most of the information I found on the internet and books just made me skeptical. I couldn't accept for example that the notes of the modern Western musical scale somehow are related to chakras. Also, having a degree in mechanical engineering, I had a hard time believing that singing bowls are made of seven metals such as mercury, lead, and copper that have such a huge gap in melting temperatures. Even if that was true, why for God's sake people would use poisonous metals for healing? I had so many questions and there was no one around to give me the answers. I purchased a few more singing bowls and was running my experiments. The knowledge started to flow towards me straight from the source - my instruments!
At this time, heavy arguments began to occur between my wife and me almost every day. Our relationship became very heavy on both of us and we decided to provide space to each other. Two months later my wife flew to Nepal. She was planning to take the hiking trail to Everest Base Camp. On August 24th, 2010, the plane she boarded with 13 other people departed from Kathmandu to the village Lukla and it never landed.
She died in an airplane crash on her 30th birthday and my heart died on the same day.
The emotional trauma I experienced couldn't be described and It isn’t my intention to focus on these dark times.
Many days passed until I pulled out one of the singing bowls from my collection again. The sounds were reminding me of the times spent with my little family and this was causing me a lot of pain. I temporarily moved away from my passion for singing bowls.
Months later after the accident, I pulled out the same sound bowl my wife and I used to play together. All of a sudden, I noticed that this bowl had a very interesting character. Once struck, the melancholic sound of a time that will never come back was flooding the room up to the ceiling. My mind was stolen by this fluctuating sad tone. Listening to this singing bowl was just painful. However, something had shifted inside of my chest and the moment of instant healing took place!
I noticed a subtle overtone that I had never paid attention to before. It was the sound of pure joy! It was a ray of sun, so pure and delightful! I asked myself, why was I choosing to listen to the melancholic tone if there is something so delicious about this other tone showing up at the same time?!
That evening I stroke the bowl countless times. I remember myself listening and smiling. I was smiling and skipping a heartbeat each time the sonic serpent was showing up and pulling my sadness from the chest away to the void. It felt like some sacred knowledge is being unveiled to me. Something that can't be told, but can be heard.
Since then, the meaning of the words "happiness is a choice" became clear to me. I started to practice listening to and choosing my mood, my thoughts, my emotions, my judgments, my reality. I became hungry for life, adventures and new experiences! I decided to take my life back.
A couple of years later, overcoming my fear, I visited Nepal and Tibet. While in Nepal, I did the Everest Base Camp trail hike. It was an act of closure on my past and the beginning of the next chapter of my life.
I also made a very interesting and fruitful connection with the local singing bowls authorities. I learned so much during this time! For a few weeks, I was spending ten to twelve hours each day, testing thousands of singing bowls in the house of the biggest collector in Nepal. I finally walked away, having made my first big purchase of 56 “Stradivarius” singing bowls.
In Tibet, I intended to visit the holy mountain Kailas, but the Chinese government blocked the way to the foreigners for a month. Instead of doing a Cora around Kailas, I joined a small group of tourists going to Central Tibet to visit five caves of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava). We also visited lots of Buddhist monasteries, some of them had never seen tourists before. Surprisingly, none of these monasteries were equipped with Tibetan singing bowls. I learned about the ceremonial usage of Tingshas (small flat round bronze bells) and gongs, but I was so unsatisfied, seeing no Tibetan bowls in Tibet. A part of me was still hoping to see the Buddhist monks do some practice using the singing bowl, besides collecting donations in them.
At some point along the way, I met an old monk who was playing a singing bowl. I asked the guide to come with me to talk to the elder. I asked the monk what exactly is he doing with the bowl? The guide translated my question and the elder struck the bowl with a wooden stick and smiled. I noticed that he was missing a couple of teeth, but I didn't care, I just waited with childish excitement for the explanation. The explanation didn't come. The monk just struck his singing bowl again and smiled like a mischievous child. I asked my guide to translate the question, how exactly does the monk use singing bowl? Is he just collecting donations with it, or is he using it for a specific ritual? Does he meditate using the sound? Or maybe he is cleansing his space? Maybe he is doing some sound healing work? The guide understood my point and patiently translated the request. The answer of the elder was one word only, which was translated into English as "listen"!
Yes, I said, I know the sound of the singing bowl, I have a collection of these at home. I am a certified sound healer! I have a sound healing master-level certification! Could you please ask him how he uses the singing bowl? After talking for a while with the monk, my guide looked at me and simply said, “he just told you: - listen!” The monk struck the bowl again as if to emphasize what I just heard from the translator. He then smiled and said in Tibetan the word that I now knew the translation of.
No kidding, it was a great teaching for me! Listen!
When I came back home, I found new qualities in my instruments. After meeting the monk, I was inspired to become an even better listener to my clients and most importantly, to myself and the life around!
I now listen to my body and soul more carefully. I listen to the universe. I am focused on listening, thanks to that short, yet profound meeting with the monk.
Himalayan singing bowls brought so many profound lessons into my life, so many beautiful people, new life and new love. I facilitate sound meditation events at least once a week and I am still excited every time I prepare for the new event.
When I facilitate group sound meditations (what people are usually referring to as a sound bath), I play very gently and quietly. I make long pauses and allow the meditators to quiet their minds and to listen to their inner silence.
By sitting quietly, and allowing yourself to be without any opinions of who or what you are, or how the world should be, by just breathing carefully, without disturbing the harmony around, you will hear the universal love. By just listening to the silence between your thoughts, you realize that love has always been there, like the sky. This is the most important part of meditation and sound healing for me.