Elizabeth Rachael "Aliza" Guyer

Elizabeth "Aliza" Stern Guyer passed away peacefully on March 28, 2023 at the age of 51 after a long battle with breast cancer. She spent her last days at the Care Dimensions hospice house in Lincoln, MA surrounded by friends and family. Befitting her nature as a consummate planner, she found this wonderful place herself through months of careful research. If she were reading this obituary she would probably object to the word "battle" because it makes cancer patients feel bad about themselves. She lived her life in exactly this way: caring about people with a combination of depth, fierce commitment, and bracing honesty. Above all things she treasured the personal relationships between people, and everything she did in her life flowed out from that passion.
Aliza was born on September 11, 1971 in Jerusalem, Israel to Ellyn and Steven Stern, who had recently made aliyah. Although the family ultimately did not stay, Israel and Judaism remained a central aspect of their lives. They returned to Philadelphia where Aliza attended the Forman Hebrew Day School in her elementary years, and Akiba Hebrew Academy for high school. Aside from being an excellent student, she pursued her personal interests in writing and theater.
After graduating from high school she spent one year at Ithaca College before transferring to Northwestern University. There she majored in speech pathology, beginning a series of careers that on the surface appeared to vary widely, but at their heart were all about helping people in a very personal and direct way. She also discovered that a distant relative and childhood acquaintance, Rachael, was also attending Northwestern. Their lives had already intersected in wonderful and coincidental ways, and they formed a lifelong friendship that sustained them both through many events and phases in their lives.
After finishing college she made a fateful move to Boston to attend Boston University's graduate program in speech pathology. There she fell in love with Boston where she would remain for the rest of her life, often preferring to live in the exciting urban centers, such as Coolidge Corner and Beacon Hill. After graduating, she worked as a professional speech pathologist, focusing on rehabilitation. The work was rewarding, but grueling, and after a few years she felt burned out. But unlike so many people who become unhappy in their jobs, Aliza was never afraid to pursue a dramatic change.
From speech pathologist she made the incredible leap to professional matchmaker, a job that, frankly, she seemed destined for. Few things in her life gave her greater joy than introducing people and nurturing new romantic relationships. That joy would remain with her throughout her life, but as a career it failed to hold her interest, and after a few years she again found herself looking for change.
Returning to school in her early 30's she completed a rigorous program in advanced practice nursing at MGH Institute for Health Professions. In the winter of her final year, she met her future husband Sam, and they were immediately inseparable (and also insufferable!). After graduating she took a position as a primary care nurse practitioner at Harvard Vanguard, later moving to Harvard University health services. She approached this job as she did all jobs: first and foremost trying to understand the patient as a whole person, and not just a list of symptoms and problems. The job was incredibly demanding, but made more tolerable by regaling Sam with the day's entertaining stories and odd characters.
Aliza and Sam were married in the summer of 2007 on the Bass Rocks coast of Gloucester. The event was everything they dreamed of, and they followed it with a glorious honeymoon traveling up the Pacific Coast highway in California. Less than six months later Aliza was pregnant with their son Jonah, who would quickly become the center of their universe. The challenges of parenthood were tempered by a shared sense of humor, often with silly songs that made light of difficult moments. Aliza quit her NP job to focus entirely on being Jonah's mom, a role she poured herself into with joy and dedication. She relished being present for every developmental step, every obstacle, and every celebration in his young life. And he absorbed all of the beautiful life lessons that she lived by and passed to him. He is her son in every possible way.
As Jonah got older, Aliza again began considering career choices. After a brief stint as the town nurse for Arlington, she once more chose a bold change: to pursue her dream of being a family photographer. As with so many of her endeavors, her way with people infused her photography with life, taking families away from everyday drudgery and helping them remember and capture their joy and love. She knew instinctively how to bring out their best; how to engage a rambunctious toddler, or coax out a shy teenager. One of her favorite methods was to get the parents alone and ask them to tell the story of how they met. In those magical moments she reignited and captured beautiful feelings that might have seemed like a distant memory for many parents. It was truly a gift.
In the winter of 2019 Aliza got her first diagnosis of breast cancer. A small lump on her right side. That year she soldiered through a hellish series of treatments that left her devastated and broken. But from that darkness she was brought back by an incredible photography opportunity. As the pandemic broke and spread, a small group of photographers started the Front Steps Project, taking portrait photos, free of charge, of families sitting on their front porches. Aliza did close to 200 front steps portraits, bringing some semblance of joy and connection to families during that difficult time. She continued her work as a skilled and highly sought-after family photographer for three more years, providing countless families with enduring memories.
Aliza lived her life in a full and fearless way, surrounding herself with loving people, and creating a life rich with wonderful relationships and experiences. She is survived by her devoted husband, Sam, her beloved son, Jonah, her parents Ellyn and Steven Stern, her brothers Michael (Rebecca Goldstone) and David (Nella) Stern, and her parents-in-law, Jane and Bernard Guyer, brother-in-law Nathan Guyer (Amanda), sister-in-law Kate Fennell (Bill), three nieces (Hanna Stern, Hannah Guyer, and Grace Fennell), four nephews (Jacob and Jonathan Stern, Owen Guyer, and William Fennell VI), and many cousins, relatives, and friends of whom she was both loving and supportive.
Aliza's advice for life: tell the people you love how you feel about them, take that trip, wear sunscreen, and get a regular mammogram.
Services at the Beit Olam East Cemetery 42 Concord Road (Rte 126), Wayland on Wednesday March 29 at 3:00 PM. Condolence calls may be made at the home of David & Nella Stern following the interment until 8PM, then continuing Thursday at Temple Shir Tikvah 34 Vine Street, Winchester, from 5-7PM with a Minyan at 5:30PM. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in her memory to METAvivor www.metavivor.org.
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