Brief portraits are emerging of the five victims named to date
Forsyth, 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 Seniors Centre 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 drug store 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 apartment overlooking the uptown Toronto stretch of Yonge Street where Alek Minassian allegedly murdered ten 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 selling 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!”
The first victim to be named, D’Amico was employed by U. S.-based investment management firm Invesco Canada, which has an office on Yonge Street close to where the carnage unfolded.
Friends and family said she was a kind, gentle and tireless volunteer with Toronto’s tennis community.
“She wouldn’t stop until she went the extra mile for others,” the family said in a statement to CBC News. “She genuinely wanted to care for all those around her even if it meant sacrificing a portion of herself in return for others’ happiness.”
D’Amico, a Ryerson University graduate, had been a longtime volunteer with the Rogers Cup tournament, the Toronto event that draws the best in tennis to the city each summer. She started at the age of 12 as a ball girl, chasing the balls between points.
“We are honoured to let the world know what an amazing person she was,” Gavin Ziv, vice president of professional events at Tennis Canada, said in a statement.
D’Amico also volunteered with the youth charity Live Different on two humanitarian field trips to the Dominican Republic, first in 2015 and again in 2017. The charity partners with communities to build houses, schools and other needed projects.
“It comforts us knowing that the world has a chance to know her,” her family said in its statement. “We hope that in this time, people fight with the same altruism rather than anger and hatred.”
Sewell, 80, was the “best grandmother anyone could have asked for,” said her grandson, Elwood Delaney. “Almost had as much love for the Blue Jays and Leafs as she did for her family.”
She was on the way to the bank Monday when the carnage unfolded.
In a Facebook tribute, Delaney wrote: “You will always be loved and your love for sports will always be with me while I cheer with you.”
A long time employee of Sears, Sewell was remembered by former co-workers in Facebook tributes as “poised and graceful” and “tough as nails but such a sweet lovely lady.”
Longtime friend Teresa Mettel said Sewell was very active in her retirement, participating in a bowling league and volunteering to assist other seniors, including Mettel’s 91-year-old mother, Doreen Herlihy.
Sewell and Herlihy lived near each other and would visit each other’s apartments on a weekly basis for coffee and to watch sports on TV, Mettel said. Figure skating, baseball, hockey, you name it.
“She was a guardian angel for my mother,” Mettel said.
While Sewell was a stickler for rules and liked things to be done properly, she had a “heart of gold,” Mettel said.
“She was strong but she was there in a flash to help you,” Mettel said.
Mettel said Sewell made her wedding dress and never asked for anything in return.
“I want her remembered for how wonderful she was for others,” she said.
Co-workers identified Chul Min (Eddie) Kang, who worked as a chef with Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouses, as one of the victims. Kang was born in Seoul, Korea and attended Mohawk College in Hamilton.
In a statement, his employer said Kang’s death brings the company “great sadness.”
Kang was described by colleagues as “salt of the earth.”
Reports said he emigrated from South Korea to Canada several years ago and that his wife, who had been living in Toronto, recently returned to South Korea.
Devastated friends and colleagues described Kang as a great soul. “It’s unbelievable that we lost you Eddie. I’m still in shock,” one colleague wrote on Facebook.
“Your daily happiness is being missed at Copacabana. In your last encounter you called me ‘Amor mio’ smiling to me when I arrived at Copacabana…. Rest in peace my dear Eddie Chulmin Kang.”
“My heart is in pain,” wrote another friend. “But I can’t even begin to imagine how his wife & the rest of his family feel.”
“I’m crying right now because there were many chances we could have spent time together and talk about food and health and Korea and life. I’m crying right now cause all I can say is sorry and it’s too late.”
Last May, Kang posted lyrics to Bob Dylan’s Forever Young on his Facebook page.
“You now stay forever young, RIP,” a woman wrote Wednesday, “Now you are in heaven, young man.”
Harry Malawi, president of the Jordanian Canadian Society, confirmed Wednesday that Munir Najjar, a Jordanian citizen, was among the dead. Najjar and his wife were in Toronto to visit their son, Omar, who is a vocalist with the Canadian Arabic Orchestra. Najjar had only been in the country for a couple of weeks when the van attack took place, according to Malawi. The family is in the midst of a three-day mourning period, he said.
“Right now, they’re in shock. They want privacy,” he said, adding that the outpouring of support from the community has helped to “ease the (family’s) pain.”
A friend of the family said Najjar was a “man of peace who lived for his family.”
“All I can say (is) he does not deserve to leave this way.”
In a statement Wednesday Rima Alaadeen, Jordan’s ambassador to Canada, confirmed the father and grandfather in his 80s was among the victims of the “heinous” attack.
“Jordan condemns in the strongest words all acts of violence perpetrated against innocent civilians and stands shoulder to shoulder with Canada in these testing times, as extremism knows no creed, religion, nationality or gender,” the statement said.
The Toronto Maha Vihara Buddhist Meditation Centre confirmed Wednesday that Amarasingha, a single mom with a seven-year-old son, Diyon, was among the victims. The child attends Sunday School at the centre, which has launched a Go Fund Me page to raise money for his care.
