Sheila Finestone, the Former Liberal Senator and Member of Parliament has passed away. It seems so odd to me that she’s died. She was 82, but her own mother, Minnie, only died within the past decade, giving me the impression that Sheila would live forever. It wasn’t just her mother, either. Sheila was a firecracker, so full of life. It’s hard to imagine her not being around anymore.

In Canada, she’s well known for her politics. She helped organize the Yvette women’s movement during the 1980 referendum on Quebec sovereignty, which fought to keep Canada united. She was an MP in Montreal for over a decade, and a later a Senator.

She also threw an amazing Passover Seder.

My dad grew up in her house, a regular playmate of two of her four boys. When exam time rolled around, the boys were each sent to their rooms to study, and my father, not wanting to leave, would sprawl out fully clothed in the big bathtub under the skylight to do his work.

While I never had any inclination to hang out in her bathroom, later in life I too would find myself not wanting to leave the Finestone home. Sheila’s sharp wit and intellect extended to her kids and to their kids, and to date, that family is one of the most fun and intelligent groups I’ve ever known.

In my life, Sheila has always been someone to look up to. In a time when housewives were the norm she set out on a courageous uncharted path. I liked her on a personal level too. She was brash, opinionated, classy, funny and fiercely devoted to her family. She loved her grandkids, and like any grandmother, got a kick out of trying to play matchmaker for her eldest grandson.

My family arrived up north two years ago and found her vacuuming her family’s cottage. When my mother asked her why on earth she wasn’t relaxing, Sheila replied with a smile: ‘But, it’s dusty in here, and accomplishing something is so satisfying!’ That truly was the way she lived her life, both in the political arena and personally; constantly taking matters into her own hands and getting things done. And not just getting thing done ‘ striving to make things better.

I will always remember her as a real, and wonderfully textured woman who stood up for what she believed in.

RIP Sheila.