Gail "Gayle" Sybil Ginsburg

We sadly announce the passing of Gail (Gayle) Sybil Ginsburg on March 7, 2026. Gayle was born in Flin Flon, Manitoba, October 26, 1958. and resided in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband of 32 years, Simon Pryor. She passed away at her home at the age of 67, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A Funeral Service for Gayle will be held Friday, March 27 at 2:30 pm at Vancouver Memorial Services and Crematorium, 5505 Fraser Street, Vancouver, British Columbia 604-325-8251

Gayle was Merv and Evelyn's third child and born 10 years later than her sister and seven years after her brother John. She was an active child and a handful for her loving but older parents. The parents moved to Winnipeg in 1980 after Gayle had left Flin Flon. Gayle had fond memories of Flin Flon, the family cabin there and lakes, the spectacular scenery and the Grey Goose bus that she rode while there.

Gayle went to Ryerson University and obtained a degree in Journalism. She traveled to Greece and had a romance with Nick her first husband there, He was handsome and her great romance with him did not survive the transition from his immigration to Canada. I know they both struggled to establish themselves with employment and all the changes. However she occasionally followed his life on line, and not some creepy way. She just wanted to know he was doing okay because she still cared. I was lucky enough to be husband two and I wasn’t jealous of her continued attachment. Failed marriages and relationships sometimes make you better at the next one and we both had histories to look back on.

After her divorce, she traveled to Japan and Korea writing published articles and continued on to the Philippines where she was in 1986 during the “Yellow Revolution” The nonviolent revolution led to the departure of Ferdinand Marcos, the end of his 20-year dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. It was an exciting time for a journalist and upon her return to Canada she planned to continue her successful career in Vancouver.

Unfortunately for her, the three major papers in Vancouver were in a decline with one folding and the other two downsizing. Gayle continued to freelance and publish but it was a tough job market and she became a valued market researcher. After meeting me she set up her first of two companies an astrology business called “Sign of the Times Astrology” which was successful but not as fulfilling as she hoped.

Her second company, “The Writers Touch” was quite fulfilling for her and her primary source of income until retirement was somewhat forced upon her by Covid, cutting her income stream back to mostly returning customers for her services provided. Gayle’s quality of work garnered significant loyalty from her customers. Thus she worked for repeat customers for a while until she retired mostly.

Gayle liked to be her own boss and had a cavalier attitude to authority like her doctors. That attitude almost got her hip replacement surgeon to fire her as a patient. Elvis Stojko the Canadian champion figure skater and hero to both of us and Canada, might remember her as “the woman” at a competition in Vancouver, who flummoxed him by asking if he wanted her autograph. But that was Gayle, irreverent, strongly opinionated and fearless when needed.

Her friends describe her as a “force of nature”. While she sometimes lacked the filter that many of us use to control our commentary, with her it was charming and she sparkled with wit and a genuineness that was so engaging. She married me your author, in 1993 but we had 34 years living together that were such fun and so worthwhile that I can’t imagine being with another. Gayle would be a tough act to follow.

We traveled from the Queen Charlottes to most of the South West of the USA and Texas and Mexico. Road Trips are said to make or break relationships. However, our only type of break downs were of the vehicular misadventures types which generated brilliant stories and travel itinerary changes to accommodate the repairs.

We loved camping and owned an older motor home which met its end at the ripe old age of 46, when we were passed on the highway; by its rear dual tires and axel shaft coming off on a corner on Vancouver Island. No one was hurt as the road was clear. But we breathlessly watched them disappear into a gully many hundreds of feet away with shared sighs of relief. Grateful, given that potential carnage had not occurred and ready to handle what came next.

As Frank Sinatra used to sing “We just picked ourselves up and got back into the race. That’s Life” okay, I paraphrased that, but I think Frank would approve because that was how we handled our ups and downs.

Our happy household was full of life, Gayle initially made me cringe at her desire to meet and greet every animal we passed. But I soon caught her fever. And we have shared our life with dogs, cats and fish. Also one very stubborn houseplant, that refuses to die, despite Gayle’s and our many cats’ best efforts to kill it over 31 years. I have always managed to seek a reprieve for it’s banishment in the constant negotiations that our married life featured. For the reader, that would be my best advice on a successful marriage. The commitment of marriage is to a un- ending lifelong negotiation of a shared life together. To forget that is to invite disharmony. These negotiations may take years on issues unresolved easily, or be quick and easily decided. Learn to enjoy them. Gayle and I certainly did.

Along with her passion for dogs and cats was a passion for figure skating. Her friends fondly described her joy as fall approached and with it the new figure skating season with all of its competitions and competitors. But for Gayle it was a year round obsession. She followed their practices and the gossip of the skating world about new teams and routines. YouTube and skating forums was a mainstay of her nocturnal life after I went to bed. Fortunately I loved skating competitions and would join her often as she made a pilgrimage to the various ice rinks somewhere in North America.

Gayle was a home body, much of the time. Some say she was allergic to the idiots that she would encounter out there, but she put up with me. We both understood when she lovingly referred to me as “such an idiot”, after some particularly bad joke or observation. I think she simply liked the serenity of her own space she had created and her animals and me for company.

Gayle was often a bit introverted and her hip gave her problems which while corrected by surgery did not result in her getting back to the long hikes that were such a part of the first 25 years of our marriage or travels and her friendships. Her memory also became more of an issue in her final years. This I believe caused her to become a bit more withdrawn from friends and family in here last years. She was proud and unwilling to show others her declining state of being. She loved her home and intended to die on the couch surrounded by all of her chosen family.

I was worried near the end, seeing the signs of an oncoming “natural death” but Gayle was unconcerned, the Olympics were on. However with help from her sister, brother and friends, we finally got her to get tests done for us. The results were bad, stage 4 cancer and Gayle saw treatment as akin to torture with little chance of success. She stated daily that dying at home was her preference and wanted no interventions. She watched the Olympics waiting for the final competition in figure skating.

She had said that for many years as she was afraid of institutions and kept a picture of Aunt Emma on a living room shelf. Emma apparently died in hospital in the 50’s it turns out. That picture held great meaning for Gayle. Emma looked like Gayle in later life as their ages got closer but Gayle grew older still. When she was younger, she told me once I was to rescue her from hospital if she were dying and let her die in a canola field. We both agreed at this point it was far too cold and better to die at home. And so she did, peacefully and pain free Saturday night March 7, 2026. As the death was expected and the necessary paperwork completed, I cleaned her, dressed her and gently carried her to the couch where she had stated she wanted to die, to await her final road trip.

Gayle will be missed by her many friends. Many of her friendships were over three decades or longer. Scorpios are loyal she told me and she could be. Both our families will miss her acerbic wit, strength, grace and innate dignity.

I am sure her Mom and Dad would be very proud of the fine woman she became.

A final thought, Gayle loved the film maker Federico Fellini, and in going through all her papers I noticed a collection of his quotes, this one was highlighted and I think it really expresses Gayle’s point of view as well. Out of respect for her feminism I have changed “ Man” into person in the quote.

Said Federico Fellini:

“ I believe—please note, I am only supposing-that what I care about most is the freedom of the person, the liberation of the individual from the network of moral and social conventions in which he believes, or rather in what he thinks he believes, and which encloses him and limits him and makes him seem narrower, smaller, sometimes even worse than he really is. If you really want me to turn teacher, then condense it with these words: be what you are, that is, discover yourself, in order to love life. To me, life is beautiful, for all of its tragedy and suffering, I like it, I enjoy it, I am moved by it. And I do my best to share this way of feeling with others.

If you wish to make a donation to a cause Gayle supported: a rape relief charity or animal charity would be suitable. Or pick a charity of your choice