Anthony Domenic Joseph Nadal, also known as Tony, Lefty, Skip, Uncle Tony, Dad and Papa, lived a long, full life.
He had a big heart and he lived his life with passion.
He took one of the biggest trips of his life at age 4, when he travelled by ship with his mother Regina, from Italy to Toronto, Canada. His memory of this early journey was that while all the adults were becoming seasick, he was watching the waves, excited to be on the ocean!
His mother “Nona” used to tell his children stories of how smart he was as a child. After a brief time at school, the teacher told her that Tony could speak English better than anyone else in the class.
Tony, his parents and his two brothers settled in the “other” little Italy, the area around Dufferin and St. Clair, known as Corso Italia. Tony loved growing up in this neighbourhood, playing baseball and other sports with his friends.
Sometimes he would get into mischief. One of the stories he liked to tell was about how the bakery truck would come into the neighbourhood to make a delivery, leaving the back door of the truck open. Tony and his friends would sneak in, help themselves to pies and then deliver them to families in the neighbourhood.
When he was older, he spent many hours with the gang at Chico’s, where he played pool and enjoyed great Italian sandwiches.
Tony went to St. Mary of the Angels Catholic school, one of the oldest Catholic schools in Toronto. He then went on to St. Michael’s College School, a school now attended by one of his 3 grandsons, Marc Smorenburg.
While at St. Mike’s he had many achievements.
In Grade 9, he was the “official doorman” of his class.
His tricky running in junior football was remembered as one of the sports highlights of the year.
He won runner up for speech of the year with his presentation on Knute Rockne, football player and coach for Notre Dame.
After school, he continued to follow his passion for playing sports, well enough and long enough to collect a variety of newspaper clippings citing his ability to strike-out batters, once pitching 22 scoreless innings in a Central Toronto Baseball league, and being a decent batter at the plate as well.
Tony was known for his love of good debate about sports. Armed with a barrage of statistics and anecdotes, he could tell you who hit the longest ball out of Yankee Stadium, or who scored what goal in any game, dating back to the days of Bill Barilko or Johnny Bower. He loved Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. If he was not talking about the New York Yankees, he would be talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs. If he started talking about Wayne Gretzky versus the old timers, you were in it for the long haul.
Tony met the love of his life, Heather Nadal, on a blind date. Eventually they married. Refusing to leave his love of sports behind, Tony took his bride to New York for their honeymoon. Imagine how thrilled Heather must have been to see Yankee Stadium!
The early years were filled with activity. Tony and Heather played on a bowling team together and socialized with friends. For a while, Tony owned and operated a small store in the Dufferin and St. Clair area. They lived in an apartment above the store, until shortly after their first child was born. Three more children followed, and their lives became even busier.
After selling the store, Tony worked for Canada Packers and then stock brokerage firms Gardiner Watson and Dean Witter.
If anything rivalled Tony’s love of sports, it was his love of being a Dad. Tony was a parent around the clock, a “helicopter parent” before it was fashionable. Tony taught his kids how to bowl, skate, ride a bike, how to bat and how to catch, throw and kick. He helped with homework when he could and in the later years, sometimes ran out of gas driving all their friends home.
For a time, Anthony had two jobs; in the evenings, he helped to make and deliver pizza and would arrive home at 2 am with a fresh, hot pizza pie. It became a bit of a contest among his children to see who could wait up to greet Dad and have pizza. One night, Kristine said to her siblings, please, please wake me up for pizza! They tried everything … they couldn’t wake her. She missed pizza.
One summer, Heather and Tony took the family camping in the Kawartha's, and it was there that they reconnected with a close friend and the only other Italian in Six-Foot Bay, his old friend Tony Alexander. Six-Foot Bay Resort on Buckhorn Lake became the weekend destination for Tony, Heather and the kids for the next 28 years. They spent many joyful days sitting around campfires, enjoying the water, swimming and boating. Despite never learning how to swim, Tony won a fishing derby catching a Muskie as big as little Rosie, the youngest of all the grandkids. He and Heather made many good friends at Six Foot Bay and always looked forward spending much of the summer there.
The adventures didn’t stop there. There was a very memorable drive to Florida and Disney World. Along with Heather’s sister Alayne and her husband Ray, and their youngest brother Mike, they packed all the kids into two motor homes and headed south. In later years, they travelled several times to Florida with Alayne and Ray to escape the Canadian winters.
In recent years, Tony and Heather spent some glorious weekends at an idyllic cottage in Parry Sound belonging to Heather’s brother Mike and his wife Lori. They gathered with all Heather’s siblings and spouses, Mike, Lori, Ray, Alayne, Jim and Ann and the ever-extending family. There was a lot of eating and a lot of laughter.
He adored his 6 grandchildren, Bronwyn, Liam, Brietta, Marc, Leo and Rose and looked after them when he could for as long as he was able.
Anthony also loved music. He loved to dance with Heather to some of his older favourite tunes. He loved Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, the Glen Miller Orchestra and the Andrew Sisters. You could always find him in a grocery store because you could hear him whistling. He loved to help. He valued honesty, hard work, kindness and a commitment to giving your best. That is his legacy. May he rest in peace.
