Machelle (Chickie) Shapira
Mother, Bubbie, musician, dog lover. Born on March 23, 1936, in Winnipeg; died on Sept. 22, 2014, in Winnipeg, of cancer, aged 78.
Machelle was today's woman, 50 years early. Whatever she did, she did well. Intelligent, talented, creative, independent and stubborn, she could also throw a mean baseball. Chickie, as she was known from childhood, grew up on the Prairies. When she was 6, her mother died; her father remarried, and the Ginsberg family grew with a sister and two brothers.
Chickie married young, and had the first two of her three sons by the age of 21. As a young wife in Winnipeg, she was active in Voice of Women, a national movement that formed in 1960 to promote peace and disarmament.
Her commitment to peace also found expression in the folk music of the '60s. A wonderful pianist and guitarist, she was also a pretty good singer and played banjo and autoharp. She and her husband, Nathan Frankel, moved to Vancouver, where they and a partner opened a coffee house called the Attic, which drew top folk and blues singers. She also wrote Jewel of the West (Beautiful B.C.), which became the provincial theme song to mark the 1967 celebration of Confederation.
After she and Nathan divorced, she and her three young sons, Allan, Sidney and Jack, returned to Winnipeg. In time, she married Jack Shapira, then managing director of Rainbow Stage, Winnipeg's summer outdoor theatre. She became administrative director at the theatre in 1968, a post she held for six years.
She was determined to help young people develop their artistic talents, and in 1972 spearheaded creation of the Manitoba School for Theatre and Allied Arts. She served as its executive director for 18 years until the school closed in 1990. Her creative side also surfaced in Canadian-content segments she wrote for Sesame Street.
The final stage of her career, in the 1990s, was spent at the provincial culture department, where she helped to promote Manitoba's book publishing, sound recording and film industries. She retired in 2005 as a policy analyst for the department. She missed the company of colleagues in her early retirement years, but enjoyed her music collection, gardening and genealogy projects.
Beyond the pride Chickie always felt in her sons and daughters-in-law, she took great pleasure in being able to observe how each of her three older grandchildren began to find their paths in life. She felt particularly blessed by the arrival, late in her life, of a fourth grandchild. Until ill health set in, her three siblings enjoyed her wise counsel, while she enjoyed her status as family historian.
Her dogs were also a big part of her life. Over a 45-year period, she had seven dogs, but only two cars. She would tool around in her Pontiac Firebird convertible, though it wasn't clear how her diminutive stature allowed her to see over its big hood.
Chickie loved her Jewish culture, traditions and values, although she was not very religious. Cooking for the holidays always brought out something special in her – great dishes prepared with much love, and resulting in too much food. Her passing at Rosh Hashanah means that her name will be read out at the High Holiday services at our synagogues every year, to the full house she deserves. She will forever be our "Jewel of the West."
Allan Shapira is Machelle's son; Gail Shapira is her daughter-in-law; Karen Ginsberg is her sister.