Victor Shawn
On Friday evening, November 5 at Mount Sinai Hospital, we lost our beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, uncle and friend, when he peacefully passed away in his 96th year.
Victor was married to his beloved Albertine (Tina to him and Bertha to everyone else) for 65 years, and was the deeply loved father of his children the late Ouri, Morris (Lili), and Abby (the late David Shiller). He was a beloved and playful grandfather to Daniel, Zack and Gabriella. The youngest of seven children, Victor was predeceased by his brothers Edward (Eliza) and William (Evelyn), and his sisters Victoria (Haron), Marcelle (Naji), Violette (Anwar) and Doris (Reuben), and will be fondly remembered by his many nieces and nephews.
Victor travelled a long and eventful road from his childhood in Baghdad, starting with an escape over the mountainous Iraq-Iran border, as a teenager and without his family, when his Haganah activities were discovered by the police. After a few months in Tehran he finally made it to Israel, working in construction, joining the army and marrying Tina, who was the sister of childhood friends from Bagdad. They bore their first son, Ouri, a beautiful boy who was tragically stricken with cancer as a young child. It was a difficult and sparse life in what was then a poor country, and in 1958 they moved to Vancouver where Victor’s brother Edward was living, in search of a better life and better medical
care.
They left for Montreal after Ouri passed, where they joined a thriving, active and fun-loving Iraqi-Jewish community, and it was there that Morris and Abby were born. Victor found work in the clothing industry, and he and Tina spared nothing for their kids. Their social life included lots of get-togethers with an extended circle of friends, often playing rummy late into the night, and frequent parties filled with Arabic music and dancing. Nothing could transport Victor more than the voice and music of his favourite singer, Om Khalthoum. In the 1970’s the community helped rescue the financially distressed Lord Reading Yacht Club in Beaconsfield, cutting a deal and joining en masse despite the fact that none of them was a Lord nor owned a boat. The Lord Reading soon became the hub of their social life, the manicured riverside lawns filled with boisterous laughter, card games, backgammon matches, and the smells of Iraqi food wafting through the air.
In later years they began to travel more frequently, sometimes with Tina’s brother Fred and his wife Ronnie on extended road trips through Europe, or to Italy with daughter Abby and her partner David. Victor loved to travel, to experience new things, to crack a joke with the waiter. In 2017 he and Tina moved to Toronto along with Abby, David and Daniel, with whom he had a special and very close relationship, and were reunited there with Morris, Lili, Zack and Gabriella, the whole family together in the same city for the first time in almost 40 years, and Zack and Gabriella getting the gift of precious time with their grandparents.
Victor was a quiet, gentle and laid-back presence. His sly sense of humour lasted to the very end, when he scolded a nurse for calling him Mr. Shawn, saying that it is his father’s name and to call him Victor. He was a friend to everyone, a favourite of many, and he will be deeply missed by us all.
Donations in his memory may be made to Mount Sinai Hospital through the Sinai Health Foundation at 416-586-8203 or supportsinai.ca.
2021
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Victor Shawn 2021..
Décès pour la Ville: Montreal, Province: Quebec