94-YEAR-OLD IS SIXTH TORONTO VAN ATTACK VICTIM IDENTIFIED.
SENIOR, 94, ON DAILY WALK WHEN KILLED BY VAN
Betty Forsyth, 94, the oldest identified fatality of the Toronto van attack, was a vivacious woman who was struck down as she returned from her daily walk to the shops and to feed birds and squirrels.
Friends at the North York retirement home where she lived for more than 20 years described a fiery old lady whose deafness did not discourage her from taking control of conversations, and whose years of bladder cancer treatment could not keep her from her regular visits to the slots at Casino Rama.
One time, she came home $4,000 richer.
Forsyth was due to go collect her new hearing aid on Thursday with her best friend, Mary Hunt. Instead, she was run over in front of a Yonge Street drugstore in the early afternoon of a sunny Monday.
Born in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1923, Forsyth never married or had children. Her ashes are to be returned there.
“She was unbelievable,” said Hunt, who often found herself talking over Forsyth, and being talked over in return, as they chatted about life, or complained about dodgy television reception.
On Wednesday, in her living room overlooking the uptown Toronto stretch of Yonge Street where Alek Minassian allegedly murdered 10 people with a van, Hunt shared her fondest memories of Forsyth in between bouts of weeping that overwhelmed her.
“She was an interesting woman, mentally,” Hunt said. “She wouldn’t miss a thing.”
“She was a very strong woman,” said her friend Marika Hacker, 90.
Hacker said Forsyth used to run a business grooming dogs, and kept a love of animals that led her to feed crumbs to the neighbourhood wildlife.
“She said they would be looking for her,” Hunt said.
“It was very important for her to walk each and every day, if it was raining or not raining, she was a very strong person, you know?” Hacker said.
Forsyth’s friends placed a photo of her outside with a memorial message, which on Wednesday was dappled with rain.
“Never so true a friend, who met all life’s challenges with cheeky courage and much laughter. We will miss you!”
Another victim identified Wednesday was Renuka Amarasingha, 48, a single mother of a sevenyear-old boy. She worked for the Toronto District School Board, whose headquarters was on the path of Monday’s rampage, and attended the Toronto Maha Vihara Buddhist Meditation Centre.
Anne Marie D’Amico, 30, was first to be identified, a tennis enthusiast and employee of Invesco Canada.
Munir Najjar, a Jordanian citizen in his 80s, was in Toronto to visit his son, a vocalist with the Canadian Arabic Orchestra.
Chul Min (Eddie) Kang, was a chef with Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouses.
Dorothy Sewell, 80, used to work for Sears and was described as the “best grandmother anyone could have asked for.”
The identities of the other fatalities are not yet known.
An official with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Toronto confirmed through a translator that two South Korean nationals are among the dead, but did not release their names.
Seneca College, where Minassian studied for several years, said one of its female students was killed.
IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR HER TO WALK EACH AND EVERY DAY, IF IT WAS RAINING OR NOT RAINING.