BETTY LEINBURD

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BETTY LEINBURD (née CALMANOVICI) Betty passed away peacefully in her sleep at home, on March 2, 2018, at the age of 95. Our mom was a total character. She was an example of the axiom that what doesn't kill you makes you tougher, and boy was she tough. She had to be, to make it through the first 40 years of her life. Betty Leinburd was born on April 25, 1922 in a traditional Jewish family in a small town in what had been the border lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Bukovina, Romania, in the town of Falticeni, a town founded by Jews around 1720. She was the youngest of three children born to Calman and Gitel (née Herman). Her father owned a grain mill in the town and she had two older brothers, Eli and Lica. She had the pleasure of living through crazed, right-wing messianic fascists running Romania in the 1930s, the different, Nazi-allied fascists running Romania during the Second World War, and then, as if that wasn't enough, the despotic communist government running Romania after the Second World War. There were maybe 10,000 people in Falticeni at the start of the Second World War of whom 7,000 were Jewish. For a small shtetl in the Balkans, it was a very cultured place. Falticeni had its own classical orchestra, was home to world caliber writers, artists, and sculptors and by all accounts, she was exposed to a sophisticated cultural life. Betty met her husband, Jacob, towards the end of the war and they were married on January 25, 1945 in Falticeni. Life in post-war Romania was not easy. In January, 1959, after a nine-year-wait, our parents were given permission to emigrate with a month's notice. Betty and Jacob went to Israel, settling for a few months in Kiryat-Gat and then in Hadera. Life in Israel at that time was very spartan, hot, and hard. Betty and Jacob had many close friends living there, but their parents and some other relatives had already made their way to Canada, and they followed eight months after arriving in Israel. In October, 1959, they came to Canada, not knowing a word of English, with nothing except two children full of attitude. Like so many immigrants before them, they settled in Winnipeg's North End. Betty and Jacob got jobs in the garment factories. Betty wasn't cut out for working in factories, and she did whatever she could to earn a living, working as a babysitter, then working evening shifts as a nurse's aide at the Winnipeg General Hospital. Eventually, around 1966 or 1967, Jacob found a business partner, Don Levine, also a Holocaust survivor, and together, they opened up their wholesale and retail textile business in the Market Square area of Winnipeg, called JD Textile. And so, seven or eight years after arriving in Canada, Betty and Jacob bought a bungalow on Forrest Avenue, and moved from North-End Lansdowne Avenue to suburban West Kildonan and Betty became a homemaker. Betty really loved to cook and even more, to bake. Her cooking was a blend of the rustic culinary flavours of her home country, melding the foods and influences of Romania with the Balkans and Turkey, and above all, Jewish interpretations of it. But her baking was heavily influenced by the hangovers of Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian empire which ruled the area before the First World War. It was Jewish Ashkenazi soul food at its most flavourful. Weekday dinners were never less than a three-course meal. And Friday night dinners were typically open to visiting family or friends marked by a feast consisting of salad, soup, at least one or two vegetable dishes often including ghiveci (a Romanian version of ratatouille), chicken, beef, fish or all three, and of course, dessert. It brought total joy to Betty's heart to see our friends gorging on her baking. Unlike her baking, Betty was not all sweetness and sunshine. She was demanding, opinionated, tough to satisfy, and more than a match for handling two sons who threw everything they had at her. She gave as good as she got. Like many of her generation, Betty really didn't look back, only ahead. And she really tried to enjoy life fully. After what she and her husband had been through, they never wallowed in what once was, or could have been...they were very much rooted in the here and now. Betty was an adventurous spirit, very social, and gregarious, with a zest for living and always game for a party, for a night of rummikub or kuluki with friends, for a movie, for dancing (especially the tango), for theatre, the symphony, opera, ballet, live music, and travelling. She did not say no to anything. Rummikub was the vehicle for getting together with friends, and enjoying the evening of good company and fine food (did we say she liked dessert). Hawaii was a big favourite of hers; later after her husband passed away, Florida, Israel, Portugal, Spain, and Hong Kong were all destinations. Betty walked every day for at least an hour from the time she was around 50. Weather didn't deter her, nor did the temperature, and even when visiting other cities, she needed a brisk daily walk to keep her in a good mood. She would put her head down and march off with determination and speed and was not interested in slowing her pace for the times someone accompanied her. You had to keep up or she would leave you behind. When she was around 87, out for a walk on a clear, sunny June day, she slipped and fell. She refused to use a walking stick afterward, claiming it was a cane for old people. A few years later, Betty went for her daily walk outside on a September day, slipped, fell and broke her hip. After that, her inability to have that vigorous daily walk, accelerated the onset of dementia. Her cognition may have been going, her body was not what it once was, but her appetite and her gusto never diminished to her final days. She still loved going out, even if it involved a wheelchair, having a glass of wine, and being in the company of others, usually being among the last to go home, whether from Paul and Ceci's wedding, or a Pesach seder. Ironically, as Betty's dementia progressed, this very tough woman got sweeter. In her final couple of years, she was, despite her dementia, in a positive emotional state, generally content with each day's events, and never losing her voracious appetite. After her passing, we received many phone calls and emails from family and friends around the world, all of them women, and each noting to us how inspirational our mom had been to them in different ways over the years. Betty is survived by her two sons, Paul (Ceci Kaufman) and Sorèl (Judy), four grandchildren, Lauren (Jeremy Levy), Cole (Kira Hayman), Jacob and Noah, her brother-in-law Joe Leinburd (Clareta), and sister-in-law Liza Calman. She was predeceased by her husband Jacob, her parents, Calman and Gitel, and her brothers, Eli (Evuca) and Lica (Liza). It was a long journey from the other side of the world to Winnipeg and Betty made the most of almost every day. It was a very full life. She is and will be greatly missed by many other family members and friends in Canada, the United States, and Israel.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on May 05, 2018