Helen Elizabeth (Chamish) Finkle, 87, of Arlington, Massachusetts, died peacefully on December 29, 2025, at the Miriam Boyd Parlin Hospice Residence in Wayland, MA.
Helen was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to the late George and Alice (Kaplan) Chamish. She was the mother of James Robert Finkle and the late Amy Carol Finkle, and the sister of the late Barbara Chamish. She is also survived by her niece, Susan Yerkes Preminger, her cats, McGee and Randy, her grand-dog Scout, and many friends who will miss her deeply.
Her father was a Jewish immigrant from Odessa, whose family fled their homeland when he was a young boy, fearing he would be seized for conscription into the Russian army. Her mother was born in Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrants who also fled Ukraine.
Helen grew up in Mattapan and Brookline, graduating from Brookline High School and Tufts University. From an early age, Helen was known for her curiosity. As a toddler in her crib, she once peeled the wallpaper off the wall; when her mother scolded her, she explained that she “wanted to see what the wall looked like,” a story she loved to tell. She was equally proud of how she obtained her first library card: after being told she could have one as soon as she could sign her name, she learned to do so within hours and got the card the next day.
In 1959, she married Alan Finkle, and together they raised their two children in Newton before moving to Arlington later in life. She was deeply devoted to her widowed mother, whom she cared for and kept closely involved in family life for many years. After Alan died in 2008 following a long battle with heart disease, Helen began to focus more on taking care of herself—becoming a regular at Mount Auburn Club water aerobics classes, making new friends, and continuing to work.
For more than 50 years, Helen worked as a physical therapist in the Boston area, caring for patients at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton, Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, the VA, and multiple nursing homes and home healthcare agencies. She balanced her career with running a busy household.
Helen was a breast cancer survivor. The chemotherapy that cured her cancer left her with painful neuropathy that contributed to mobility challenges in her later years, which were especially difficult for someone who had been active for most of her life. She retired from physical therapy in her early seventies, doing so reluctantly and only when she no longer had the stamina to do the work.
For much of her life, she clipped coupons and watched sales so she could stretch every dollar, provide more for her children, and support the charities she cared about. She loved cooking and was always trying new recipes to expand her repertoire.
A lifelong Democrat and subscriber to the daily print edition of The Boston Globe for nearly 70 years, Helen followed politics and current events closely. She was angered by racism, gun violence, and other social injustices. She was an avid MSNBC viewer, with recent favorites including Lawrence O’Donnell’s “The Last Word” and Ali Velshi’s “Velshi Banned Book Club.”
She was an avid “Jeopardy!” watcher from the show’s early years, a loyal public television supporter, and a fan of British mystery dramas and “Masterpiece Theatre.”
She will be remembered for her no-nonsense outlook, her steadfast love for the Red Sox through good seasons and bad, and the joy she experienced from cooking, sewing, knitting, and other crafts. Helen knit, crocheted, and sewed clothing for family members, including carefully crafted Minuteman and Betsy Ross costumes her children wore during Newton’s bicentennial parade.
Helen had a sharp, dry sense of humor, and people often remarked on how smart and funny she was. “She really was larger than life. She will be missed,” remarked one former colleague.
Over the past few years, Helen lived with Alzheimer’s disease. Even as the illness progressed, she maintained a positive outlook and stayed engaged with the world around her. After moving into Chestnut Manor, an independent senior housing community in Arlington, she was well known there for cracking jokes, her habit of telling it like it is, and her devotion to her cats. She continued to get good use of her library card and maintained her passion for language, joining weekly Scrabble games at the Arlington Council on Aging, where she was known to discuss a word’s definition and origin.
Maintaining independence was of paramount importance to her. In late 2024, when asked what mattered most, she said she wanted to remain “the boss” of her own home. With help from family and friends, she was able to live independently through the remaining days of her life.
Funeral services will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Helen’s memory to the Animal Rescue League of Boston, 10 Anna’s Place, Dedham, MA 02026, or online at arlboston.org.