Obituary of Nirmal Anand

Nirmal Anand (1935-2024)

Nirmal (née Suri) Anand passed away Saturday November 2, 2024, at 8:10 a.m. peacefully and in comfort in her room at the Post Village Inn Long-Term Care Facility in Oakville, Ontario. She was surrounded by her loving family who are grateful for the exceptional care she received from nurses, doctors, PSWs and staff during her residence there over the past couple of years.

Nirmal was born to Ramchameli (née Bhasin) and Moharchand Suri in a small village near Haripur, Pakistan in 1935. She was forced to flee her home and migrate with her parents, two sisters and brother during the Partition of India in 1947 across the Radcliffe Line. The family eventually resettled in Araghar, Dehradun, India where she sought—against all odds—to get educated, go to teacher’s college and earn an MA in Economics. She married in 1967 and immigrated to Canada shortly afterwards to establish a new life in small mining towns in Northern Ontario (Geraldton, Thunder Bay). The family eventually settled down in southern Ontario (Toronto, Oakville) where she would raise her children and serve as a supply teacher for the Toronto and Halton District School Boards.

Nirmal had several passions beyond education and teaching. She most of all loved tending to a large vegetable garden and many indoor houseplants who she talked to daily. She was a gifted seamstress and knitter, always making things from her own invented patterns. She is remembered for her cooking, which was so truly her own that her dishes (for example, aloo parantha or ras malai) feel impossible to replicate. She had an uncanny sense of humour. While she made friends easily, she only kept a few close to her heart. She knew quality when she saw it in everything: rice, silk, jewelry and people. She was a devotee of Ma Durga and had a mysterious relationship with the divine, as it appeared in her dreams or visions. She showed immeasurable generosity towards her children, who always came first. She had an iron will.

Nirmal is survived by her loving and dedicated husband (Manmohan Lal Anand), her three children: Chitra Anand (Stephen Widdowson), Madhur Anand (Christopher Thomas Bauch), and Bharat Anand and her five grandchildren: Brahm Anand Widdowson, Taj Anand Widdowson, Jaya Katharina Anand-Bauch, Kiran Thomas Anand-Bauch, and Gita Suri Anand-Bauch.

Her life is also largely the subject of a nonfiction book entitled This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart published in 2020 which is archived in the Library of Parliament of the Government of Canada, and further biographical details of her rich and valued life may be found there.