STEIN, MARIA ROSPOND Peacefully at Michael Garron Hospital on September 25, 2021 in her 97th year, after a remarkable life: the “Iron Lady”, born to Rospond and Szponder, near Krakow, Poland, child prodigy, gifts of voice and intellect, robbed of youth by 5 years of slave labour and Resistance, 19 year-old ward of 110 war UNRRA camp orphans in Germany, penniless refugee to Canada without family, overcame discrimination and championed women’s and human rights by example and true grit. Recovered from abandonment by her husband: left alone, raising her children with help from her wartime friends and entering nursing at Sick Children’s, winner of scholarships, University of Toronto Nursing grad then English Lit, pioneer ICU Head Nurse, researcher, and distinguished popular Ryerson Professor Emeritus of Nursing, in her seventies while selling lotto tickets was held up at gunpoint and Granny drove off the robber. World traveller, liberal thinker, lottery aficionado, voracious reader, great walker and splendid friend and counsel. Maria will be missed by her 3 children, Yorum, Joanna, Daniel, 5 grandchildren, Austen, Leila, Michael, Matthew, Eropa, their partners, and 2 great- grandchildren, Yshia, Aylish. “There is no greater wisdom than kindness”. “Thank you, thank you, thank, thank you”.
Published in Toronto Star Oct 2, 2021