Author Archives: Nor

About Nor

I'm a creative non-fiction writer, with a special interest in memoirs and obituaries--life stories, local histories with flesh & blood anecdotal details. I'm also beginning to create podcasts of people's stories and expanding their audiences. I'm a diarist, an editor, and a political activist. I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and spend days tapping keys or staining my fingers in ink.

Sammy Yatim and Toronto’s finest

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Nor

I have to interrupt the flow of my posts to write about the murder of Sammy Yatim, the young Toronto teenager who “drop(ped) the knife” (these were his last orders) only when he was shot nine times and tasered once by … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged death, Police brutality, Sammy Yatim, Sopranos, streetcar, Taser, Toronto | 3 Comments

How funny is death? SPOW Conference Part Two

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Nor

Or is that really the question I want to ask? I am forever niggled by something having to do with writing obituaries and it has, partly, to do with the reactions from womenfolk and menfolk, children folk too (although less … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged Anne O'Neill, CNN, death, history, humour, memorial, memory, Moscow, Noreen Shanahan, obituary, SPOW, Toronto, World War II | 4 Comments

Timbits and dinosaur poop

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Nor

Writing the lede to a piece of journalism can feel like dangling from a rope over the abyss. I’m there now, puttering up to write another obituary, sitting in a Queen Street coffee shop while rain thunders down, trying to … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged coffeeshops, death, dinosaur, Earth science, Hawaii, Kerrich, memorial, Noreen Shanahan, obituary, Saskatchewan, Volcano | Leave a comment

Society of Professional Obituary Writers # 1

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Nor

Chris is not an anachronism, although he looks to have stepped from the pages of a Hardy novel and named Jude or some such. No, not Hardy and not Jude but Chris, circa 2013, printing copies of William Lyon MacKenzie’s … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged Colonial Advocate, Jarvis Street, MacKenzie House, Rob Ford, SPOW, Toronto, William Lyon MacKenzie | Leave a comment

Yvonne Brill and the Stroganoff Debacle

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Nor

There was controversy in the obituary world last month following the death of pioneering rocket scientist Yvonne Brill. The debacle was discussed in “What’s an Obituary For?” an article written by Megan Garber and published in The Atlantic. I’ll borrow generously from … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged death, Douglas Martin, Megan Garber, New York Times, obituary, the Atlantic, Yvonne Brill | 1 Comment

A toast to James Pon’s grandfather

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Nor

James Pon’s grandfather filled my mind during this rail trip from Montreal to Toronto last month. It was he, along with hundreds of other Chinese workers, who built this railway–although on the other side of the Rocky mountains. Last month, … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged Chinese Canadian, CPR, death, head-tax redress, memorial, Noreen Shanahan, obituary, poetry, railway workers, Toronto, Vancouver, VIA | Leave a comment

Society of Professional Obituary Writers

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Nor

June 7-9, 2013, Toronto Here in Toronto we are thrilled to be hosting the fourth conference of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) We know how much fun they are. We know how important they are. And we know we need to … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged Catherine Porter, death, obituary, obituary writer, Ryerson University, Toronto, Toronto Star | 1 Comment

Loss. Regret.

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Nor

Writing obituaries sometimes feels like an exercise in loss and regret. The subject has died, of course, and so I lack the opportunity to interview this person. Instead I must gather details of her or his life from colleagues, family, … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged Canada, Chinese Canadian, death, Harley Street, head-tax redress, history, John A. MacDonald, memorial, memory, navvies, obituary, oral history, railway worker | Leave a comment

“Let him rest,” says his widow

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Nor

When I’m writing an obituary, I live among the family. Not literally, of course, but emotionally. It begins with reading the death notice, usually written by one of the deceased’s children, placed in a newspaper at great cost and twigging … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Cambridge, death, Globe and Mail, history, Holocaust, memorial, memory, newspaper, obituary, World War II | 3 Comments

Mrs. Journalist here

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Nor

My first “Mrs.” In my copy, I mean. I have never been nor shall I ever be a Mrs., but the Globe and Mail deigned to snap that honorific to the woman I profiled in today’s paper. It is hard, … Continue reading →

Posted in obituaries | Tagged art, Collage, death, feminism, Great Depression, history, International Women's Day, Martha Stewart, Nellie McClung, obituary, poetry, Toronto, women | 6 Comments