Wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, bookkeeper. Born Feb. 24, 1934, in Toronto. Died Feb. 16, 2011, in Toronto of complications from breast cancer, aged 76.
Nancy Pollock was the first Canadian child born to Isaac and Miriam (Zajdenwar) Zaid, who immigrated from Poland in the late 1920s. She had two older sisters, Mickey and Lillian, who came to Canada as infants, and a younger brother, Jerry, who was born in Canada.
Nancy was raised in a home that blended Jewish values with Canadian pride and patriotism. Her parents were working-class poor, yet she always said she never realized her poverty because almost everyone she knew lived the same way and her family was content with what they had.
Nancy went to Central Commerce Collegiate Institute at a time when women were discouraged from seeking a university education and entering the work force. Although she would not dream of labelling herself a feminist, she always exuded feminism in its purest form.
Her dream of pursuing higher education was shattered with the death of her father at 49. She dropped out of school and found a job to help her widowed mother and younger brother. At 15, Nancy learned the art of bookkeeping working in the textile trade on Spadina Avenue, one of the only places in Toronto that would hire a Jewish girl at the time. A loyal and gifted bookkeeper, she worked until two months before her death - she never had any plans for retirement.
Her sense of responsibility was tempered by her love of adventure. At 13, she went on a bike ride from downtown Toronto to Oshawa. She called her parents long-distance to tell them of her whereabouts.
Nancy met Percy Pollock at a dance, and it was love at first sight. They married in 1955 and raised three children - Wendy, Lesley and Stuart - in a multigenerational home with Nancy's widowed mother and her brother. Nancy taught her children the importance of family unity, tolerance and love. Her home was always open to host family and friends. Her house was not big, but it was always filled with love.
Nancy enjoyed going to bingo and playing mahjong. She played with the same group of girls for more than 40 years. She loved bowling and tennis in her younger years, playing the lottery, visiting the casino and watching game shows. She also loved going to live theatre with Percy and had a flair for finding bargains while shopping. When Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 50s, the doctor predicted that she would live to see great-grandchildren, and she did. She lived with cancer for more than 22 years while working, volunteering, playing, travelling and making the most of each day. She always said it was important for her to leave pleasant memories in the world. She touched many people's lives.
By Wendy Rubin, Lesley Rosenfeld and Stuart Pollock, Nancy's children