Zena Weishoff caught many eyes roaming the Main from around 1968 to 1983, loitering endlessly and occasionally eating waste tossed into garbage.The vagrant and bag lady was born around 1920 and managed to survive German death camps in the Nazi-engineer Holocaust before settling in Montreal on Clark Street near Pine.
Weishoff, with her tattered clothing and large shock of grey unkempt hair could often be seen inside the St. Lawrence Bakery on the east side of the Main where she sat and rarely spoke a word.
In September 1983, then aged 63, Weishoff attracted media attention when she spent three weeks sleeping under the porch of the her home after her landlord David Horlick evicted her from her second-story unit.*
Her home was a mess and contained broken, smelly furniture and had no working amenities.
Attempts to communicate with her failed, as she stubbornly refused to talk.
It was believed, however, that she stubbornly clung to the spot because she felt she had to be there if her husband returned.
Newspaper reports do not reveal whether her landlord took the proper legal steps to evict her from her home but he was not shy to comment on the case.
How would you like to have her in your home? She's on auction. Anybody who wants her can have her. Nobody would keep her for a million dollars. She should be in the Douglas Hospital. She's not our problem. We have enough problems.Montrealers lined up to volunteer to help Weishoff, with countless offers to clean and paint her home. Sun Youth offered her a $100 budget to supplement her welfare payments. Police, when they intervened, found $1,700 of donations found rolled up into her socks when they took her off to a mental hospital on Oct. 3, 1983.
She fled the hospital but was picked up two days later and placed in the Van Horne Residence on Decarie. Within weeks Weishoff had gained weight and looked considerably healthier.
She would be 99 this year if still alive.
*(The exact address is not mentioned in media reports from the time and a cursory glance at Lovells directory gives no clue).