An excerpt from David Mirvish's eulogy for his dad

I would like to thank all of you for being here today. Over the last four years many people have stopped me on the street to ask 'How is your father?' and it's made me aware that he gave a great deal of himself to the people of Toronto. But all of you gave back to him, in return. It was a meaningful bond between all of us in this city.

We're all here to remember a remarkable man that you all knew as Honest Ed, but to me, he was 'Dad.'

In recent days, the papers have spoken of how he came to this country as an immigrant, lost his father at the age of 15, found the light of his life in my mother, Anne, and went on to achieve many of his goals. My father very seldom spoke of goals and he was skeptical of long-term planning - he couldn't foretell the future. But I do know that his first goal was to be able to take care of his family and not be a burden on anyone.

From 1941 to 1963, my mother and he built a business at Bloor and Bathurst that is today called Honest Ed's.

In 1963 he purchased the Royal Alexandra Theatre because he believed that it was a beautiful building that should not be destroyed. Over the years he came to love it in the same manner as he did Honest Ed's. He said 'Theatre wasn't a business, it was a disease.' In order to make theatre-going easy for people in the early years when there were no places to eat nearby, he opened a restaurant next door to the theatre and only served one dish, roast beef.

What all these enterprises had in common is that he tried to make them as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. He believed theatre going was a habit and therefore he tried to keep the theatre open 52 weeks a year. Over the years, he shared what he could with other people and obviously enjoyed people. He received recognition and honorary degrees.

Amongst the overwhelming outpouring of good wishes that my family has received in these past two days, one gentleman wrote to say 'Make sure you get his honours right.' There's the CBE (Commander of the British Empire), the OC (Order of Canada), the O.Ont (Order of Ontario) and LLD (Honorary Doctorates). My father was very proud to have that recognition, but he always said 'I'm a storekeeper.' He enjoyed going to Buckingham Palace and was honoured to receive the CBE, but I think he thought that it not only meant Commander of the British Empire, but also 'Commander of Bargains Everywhere.'

He cared about people and they cared about him.

But what was it like living at home with Honest Ed? My father was a creature of habit and yet somehow he was able to combine that with great creativity. You could set your watch by him. Every morning at 8:00 a.m. he was at work. For The first hour he would sit at a diner called 'Peter's Lunch' at the corner of Bathurst & Bloor and have a coffee. Throughout my childhood, I remember him there - and whether you worked with him at Honest Ed's or if you just lived in the neighbourhood, he was always available to talk with you over breakfast.

Through most of my youth, my mother had food on the table at 6:00 p.m. and my father sat down at that time to eat dinner with us everyday. Sometimes after dinner, he would sit at the table with a piece of paper and write 'Edlines' for his ads: 'Honest Ed is for the birds! Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!' For many years the marks from the 'Edlines' were scratched into the top of the dining room table. It didn't always please my mother.

He didn't give advice unless you asked for it and I wish I had asked for it more often. He felt that experience was the best teacher. He made few demands and it made you want to exceed his expectations. He did his work and as another friend of mine said, he then celebrated. That celebration was a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

My mother introduced my father to a whole world of the arts and in the last years of his life, he even enjoyed accompanying her to the opera.

For the past four years my father's life was not easy. All his life he had wanted to be of service, he was trying hard. He tried hard to please and to not be a burden on his caregivers. He took up piano lessons and he hated to exercise but he did it to please my mother and me. In his illness, after always being independent and free, always making his own choices, he was now dependant on other people. He would say 'getting old is not for sissies.' He had a memory for people and incredible loyalty. He had friendships for life and there were a number of people who were in his life for 40 or 50 years.

I believe that he was my role model and my hero and now I realize that perhaps he was a role model and a hero to the whole city. He had a great love for all three of his grandchildren, Jacob, Hannah and Rachael.

This has been a particularly difficult time for our family because his brother, my Uncle Bob, passed away only two weeks ago. He was a great help to my father in the early days of our owning the Royal Alexandra Theatre when he helped book the shows. And while it has been a difficult time, we also feel fortunate that all of my father's close family, was able to visit with him before he died.

My father thought that Canada was a land of opportunity and that he was a symbol of what other people could achieve.

To put it in theatrical terms, my father's life was one long run, extended many times and recouped many times over by countless standing ovations.

And what kind of production was his life? It was anything but a tragedy, it was somewhat of a comedy, but one with lots of music and dancing, because everyone knows how much he enjoyed music and how much he loved to dance.

So his life was the biggest, most joyful musical comedy, spiced with romance where he got the girl, my mother Anne, and they lived happily ever after.

To borrow a phrase from George and Ira Gershwin, 'Who could ask for anything more?'