Hundreds of family members and friends of slain Chestnut Hill stylist Wendy Feldman packed St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Dec. 14, for a somber funeral service.
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Hundreds of family members and friends of slain Chestnut Hill stylist Wendy Feldman packed St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Dec. 14, for a somber funeral service that shed light on Feldman’s life as a successful local business owner, friend and mother. Her happiest day, according to Feldman’s sister, Donna Raichle, was when Feldman had her daughter Brynne, on Aug. 2, 1995.
“She had her shining star and everyone - everyone - got to be part of Brynne's life,” said Raichle at the service. Brynne later moved to Guatemala, where Feldman would visit her regularly.
“Wendy wanted to be where Brynne is,” Raichle said, “and so she went back and forth to Guatemala like we go back and forth to the shore.”
Brynne, in her eulogy, said that everyone who knew her mother, “knew her well.”
“She's a person who loved to chat,” she continued. “Even after a brief conversation, you knew the kind of person that she was.”
To Brynne, her mother was someone who wouldn’t just give you the shirt off her back, but “would give you anything.” She’d also travel extensively to meet Brynne, wherever she was in the world - and that could be many places, such as Guatemala, Mexico or Korea.
One time, according to Brynne, her mom came to visit her in Korea when the highlights in her hair had grown out.
“Only her suitcase contained a pair of scissors, bleach and shears,” she said.
Feldman, “always made sure I was comfortable before she left,” Brynne said. “Only Ma could make the other side of the world feel close because I know she'd visit any time I needed her, or she needed me. No one traveled as quickly or spontaneously.”
Feldman was murdered by her husband, Frank Hayden, in the parking lot behind her business, Spa Elysium at 55 Bethlehem Pike. Hayden then fatally shot himself in a murder-suicide.
During the service, only the Rev. Eric Hungerford mentioned, indirectly, the tragic way that Feldman died.
“We are at a loss for words when we experience the kind of tragedy that our community just experienced this past week,” he said. “She cared for her clients; she cared for her friends who worked with her and for her at Spa Elysium. She built a community around herself and you are in that community. She made such a deep and lasting impact throughout Chestnut Hill - an impact that will be felt for many many years.”
