By Christine M. Quirk and Celeste Katz Marston
Concord Bridge Staff
On the day Concordian Tamar Vishlitzky died, she headed to Bedford with a bike, “planning to ride farther than she had ever ridden before.”
Instead, the life of the 53-year-old artist, psychoanalyst, and devoted mother was cut short in a crosswalk at Concord Road and the Reformatory Branch Trail.
The driver of the Volkswagen GTI that struck Vishlitzky on July 20 was cited for operating a vehicle with a suspended license, a crosswalk violation, and using an electronic device while operating a motor vehicle.
Following the crash, Vishlitzky, who had been walking her bike through the crosswalk, was taken to Lahey Hospital in Burlington, where she was pronounced dead. The driver, a 34-year-old Billerica man, will not be identified before a hearing, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office said.
‘The depths of the ocean’
Since her recent move to Concord, Vishlitzky “had been really happy to be so close to nature,” according to an obituary posted by the Stanetsky Memorial Chapel of Brookline.
“It reminded her of the good parts of her childhood.”
An Israel-born immigrant who came to the U.S. with her family at 14, Vishlitzky’s life, the obituary explained, “was not simple nor easy.
“She was a deeply sensitive person and her soul had the depths of the ocean. She created beauty in the world with her unique creativity and aesthetics,” the remembrance said. “She was also immensely empathetic and felt deeply the horrors and hardships of others in the world.”
Vishlitzky attended the Massachusetts College of Art at age 16 and later earned a master’s in painting from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Her artistic career as a painter and ceramicist informed her later therapeutic work, her obituary said.
Vishlitzky earned a master’s degree in social work from Boston University. She trained at Cambridge Hospital and the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy, specializing in addressing trauma.
In 2021, she completed analytic training at the Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis and worked both in a Brookline office and from her home on Bedford Street.
According to her Psychology Today profile, Vishlitzky had expertise in many areas, but her “top specialties” included anxiety, relationship issues, and mood disorders.
“I believe that therapy can be useful and effective. I also believe that some feelings and life situations are too difficult to bear alone,” she wrote. “I love the work I do and would feel honored to be part of your journey towards self-discovery and healing.”
‘A more beautiful place’
While sensitive and empathetic, Vishlitzky also had a way of getting to the heart of a matter, her obituary said.
“She would weave incisive, life-changing offerings into matter-of-fact conversations with colleagues, patients and friends to take or leave as they pleased. If you didn’t pay close attention you could miss the message because Tamar would not tolerate any grandstanding or pretense in others let alone in herself.”
Vishlitzky leaves her mother, sister, and two daughters to whom she was profoundly devoted.
“She saw the beauty in the world and made it a more beautiful place, even while having awareness and empathy about the hardships within it,” her obituary said.
“Her sudden and violent demise came as she was beginning a new and exciting chapter — one she had finally entered into with more ease, confidence, wisdom and connection — has left her family and community profoundly devastated, heartbroken, and aching with the chasm of her loss.
“She is so missed.”
Funeral services are private, but condolences are being received via www.dignitymemorial.com.
