A ball of energy with a big smile.
That’s how former co-workers, turned longtime friends, describe Lana Pinsky.
“(A) little eccentric, loved to dance, you know? But was full of spirit,” Craig Smith says fondly, leaning forward on the couch in the Halifax North Memorial Public Library’s children’s section.
Smith has known Pinsky for decades. He, like many North Enders, grew up coming to the library often and began working there in Grade 11.
“There was that sense of family and sense of community and camaraderie that you don’t get in a whole lot of places, and so Lana was a part of that as well,” he says.
In the ’90s, Pinsky joined the library’s team as the reading support program co-ordinator, with big ideas about how to expand the program while engaging kids.
“When the program first started, it was the brainchild of the late Terry Symonds, who was the first youth worker here at the library. And one of the things Terry wanted to ensure was that tutors that came in would reflect the kids,” Smith says. “If the kids saw somebody they could emulate and hopefully somebody that we see in university, they’d say ‘university is a possibility for me,’ and so Lana carried that on.”
All those who knew Pinsky say her impact on North End children’s literacy will never be forgotten.
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After 30 years of leading the program, Pinsky was far more than just a co-ordinator.
“The reading support program to a large degree was Lana Pinsky,” Smith says. “The kids really gravitated towards her.”
Mark Maestro worked with Pinsky for 25 years. He says he saw her more than his own family.
“And most of these kids still remember her, like, thankful that she was around when they were growing up,” Maestro says. “She mentored a lot of children — like generations.”
Pinsky’s sunny demeanour and gentle nature made her sudden death all the more shocking.
In early October, police announced Pinsky was the victim of a homicide that had taken place at Quingate Place Condominiums, an older condo block filled with longtime Haligonians, all of whom seemed to know Pinsky. Her son, Jonathan William Pinsky, 41, was charged with second-degree murder.
For Pinsky’s library family, her death was surreal.
Maestro says acceptance has been hard. The only way he has gotten through it has been by celebrating the person she was in life.
As a painter, Maestro took up the brush instinctively, painting Pinsky how he wanted her to be remembered: smiling, wearing her favourite thrifted sweater.
“I think it’s a nice memorial for her…. You’d see her coming, she was dancing and all this, you know?” Maestro says, reminiscing. “In her Frenchy’s dress … high stilettos … she was just a fashionista.”
Friends say Pinsky’s impact on North End youth was invaluable.
“Here in this part of the province, there were higher dropout rates and lower numbers when it came to kids walking across that stage of Grade 12 to get a diploma. And that program was specifically designed to help address some of those deficiencies and to lift up the literacy rates of kids,” Smith says.
“Its impact was immeasurable because there are so many kids that came through here that learned about the joy of reading and recognizing the fact that that has implications to where you go in life.”
Pinsky was also instrumental in teaching language skills to Halifax’s new immigrants.
“For the newcomers who went through her program — I mean newcomers who came who couldn’t speak any English — next thing you know, they own a successful business,” Maestro says.
For Maestro, whose relatives live out-of-province, Pinsky was family.
“She became my co-worker, became my best friend — her loss is like losing a mother.”
Maestro hopes to install his painting of Pinsky beside the library’s one-on-one reading support door.
There is no question about it, he says, Pinsky was a treasure to the North Memorial Public Library.
“We think about the legacy that we want to leave behind as individuals, as we leave this earth and unfortunately, in such a tragic way this time,” Smith says. “But Lana had an impact.”
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