| Obituary |
LEVINE, Michael (Mike) 1911 - 2002. On Thursday, May 23rd, 2002 in Montreal. Born in Kamai, a shtetl near Vilna, Lithuania, Mike lived with his parents Fishel and Shayna and his eight siblings. He arrived in Canada at the age of 17 penniless and speaking neither English nor French. He met his wife-to-be as soon as he arrived and married Bessie in 1936. She was the love of his life for more than 66 years. His three children, Saul (Ann), Joyce (Ken), and Steven, 6 grandchildren Jaime (Karin), Mischa (Marcia), Zachary (Catherine), David, Annie and HannaMei, and his great-grandson Dov, were the extraordinary sources of his naches and the motivation for his longevity. Mike was a man born into abject poverty and anti-semitic pogroms whose life was in part shaped by the Holocaust (where he lost one brother and his parents). He ended up in Canada for which he was always grateful. Instead of having resentment and recriminations, this self-made man was sweet, loving, generous, magnanimous, a lover of music and the arts, a supporter of Yiddish and Israel, so generative, gentle and resilient: a truly beautiful Neshoma (soul). Donations in his memory may be made to the Mike Levine Memorial Fund, c/o The Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation, Montreal (514) 369-2222, local 1334. |
