‘They were taken from us’
FAMILY, FRIENDS MOURN BILLIONAIRE COUPLE FOUND DEAD LAST WEEK
In front of two dark wood coffins in a huge convention centre near the Toronto Airport filled with thousands of people, Jonathon Sherman said he and the rest of his family have struggled mightily to cope with the "incredibly painful and bizarrely surreal” deaths of their wealthy parents.
Less than a week ago, his parents, the billionaire philanthropists Barry and Honey Sherman, were found dead in the indoor pool room at their handsome North York home by a real estate agent. In the days following, news outlets, including the National Post, reported an early police theory that, according to police sources, the deaths may have been a murder-suicide. Family and friends have since vigorously disputed that notion.
“Our parents never left anyone behind. They were taken from us,” Jonathon, one of the Shermans’ four children, said. “Before we could begin to grieve as a family and recover in a proper Jewish manner, we’ve had to navigate through a terrifying maze of non-information and unfounded speculation, all while trying to support each other emotionally.
“As my sisters and I congregated for two days, waiting to hear any facts other than through Twitter and the unreliable news media, I kept expecting my parents to walk through the front door and say ‘Everything will be fine. We’ve taken control of the situation.’ ”
He was startlingly abrupt in opening his eulogy, saying: “These last few days have been really f--ked up for my family.”
Toronto Police have been guarded in their statements on the case, saying only that homicide detectives have now taken the lead in investigating the “suspicious deaths.” A source has told the National Post the Shermans were found hanging from a railing over their lap pool.
Organizers estimated 6,000 people attended the elegant service at the International Centre, many of them employees of Barry Sherman’s generic drug empire Apotex. At the behest of the family, the employees wore blue — the Apotex corporate colour — and so the hall was speckled with azure scarves, navy sweaters and royal blue shawls.
Despite the turnout, which included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory, the nearly three-hour service somehow felt intimate.
The speakers — Tory and Wynne among them — veered away from the circumstances of their deaths and instead gave portraits of Barry and Honey Sherman as regular people, far more complex then their respective public images as a cantankerous business tycoon and a gregarious benefactor of Toronto charities.
Wynne offered a tribute to the Shermans’ wide-ranging contributions to causes at home and abroad.
“Because of their dedication to giving to those in need, there are countless students and patients, children and seniors, so many people here at home and around the world whose lives were touched by Honey and Barry who don’t know it,” she said. “And I get the sense that that’s exactly how the Shermans wanted it to be.”
“I didn’t prepare well,” Honey Sherman’s sister Mary Shechtman said, fighting back tears. “I guess I’ve just been in a fog over the last little while. I’m standing here confused and dazed and really angry, and I’m afraid for the shock that’s going to wear off and the reality that’s going to set in.”
Shechtman reflected on her sister’s humble beginnings as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, recalling a childhood far removed from the affluence that would later come to the family as Apotex flourished.
“One may have been soft, calm, brilliantly logical, staunchly atheist and unconditionally loving and proud,” Jonathon Sherman said, speaking of his father. “The other may have been firm, intensely energetic, brilliantly gregarious, silently spiritual and unconditionally honest and caring.
“But together they were everything and perfect.”
Daughter Kaelen also stepped to the podium.
“My dad used to come home every day from work and, no matter what, he would always make sure to come to our rooms to sing to us and say goodnight,” she told mourners. “I would like to take this time to sing it back to him,” she said, then started the song, ‘You are my sunshine.’
THERE ARE ... SO MANY PEOPLE HERE AT HOME AND AROUND THE WORLD WHOSE LIVES WERE TOUCHED BY HONEY AND BARRY.