Entrepreneur, mentor, gladiator

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This article was published 19/03/2022 (1580 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Beryl Paintin was many things during her life: a loving wife and mom, an impassioned writer, a savvy entrepreneur and a staunch advocate for small business owners.

One thing she wasn’t, though, was afraid to speak her mind. Regardless of whom she was speaking to or what the subject may have been, Paintin was as candid as they come.

“There was no shrinking violet in her,” recalls Grant Nordman with a laugh. He and Paintin worked together with the Assiniboia Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and later became close friends.

“She would be quite happy to take on a subject that a lot of people might not, but at the same time do it with sincerity and honesty. She was never mean, but by the same token she didn’t abide by the rules of political correctness where you couldn’t talk about a subject.”

Paintin was born in Swindon, England, and moved to Canada with her husband Peter in 1975 after he accepted a machinist job in Winnipeg. She hit the ground running soon after arriving in the city. She continued her career in the print industry for many years before operating her own successful clothing store and later pursued her love of writing.

Her boisterous laugh and infectious personality drew people to her and made her the centre of attention wherever she went.

“She was just the most positive person you could ever meet. She very seldom had a negative word,” says Nordman, a former entrepreneur and city councillor who served with Paintin on the ACC during the 1990s.

“She was a joy to have around because she was so positive all the time.”

Sadly, Paintin’s laugh was quieted last summer. She died Aug. 27 at the age of 84 after battling dementia for several years. She is survived by husband Peter, son Jon, his wife Sheila and their daughter Mackenzie.

Paintin was 38 when she arrived in Winnipeg and quickly landed a job in the printing industry. She worked for a handful of different print companies including Hignell’s, Print It and Dave’s Quick Print. She started off doing layout and design work and eventually worked her way up to production manager later in her career.

Paintin had gotten her start in the printing industry soon after finishing school in Britain. She apprenticed at The Borough Press where she learned all the ins and outs of her craft.

Paintin left the print business in the early 1990s and soon after purchased a women’s clothing store that had been owned by a friend.

Act 2 Fashions was located in a strip mall on Portage Avenue near Shelley Street and was one of the city’s first retail outlets to sell recycled women’s fashions. She owned the store for nearly a decade before closing its doors.

Jon Paintin says the business was the perfect environment for his mom.

“She’s always loved shopping so it was a good fit for her,” he says, laughing. “She liked clothing and she liked deals.”

It was while she owned Act 2 that Paintin became actively involved in the business community. She joined the local chamber of commerce and served several terms on the organization’s board of directors. Her work with the chamber helped her to develop connections with numerous business and community leaders, including Nordman and former MLA Jim Rondeau.

Jon Paintin says developing connections with members of the business community was something his mom delighted in.

“She found it challenging and exciting and it kind of drove her,” he recalls. “Being able to work with other people and provide feedback and input was one of the best things to her. She really enjoyed the networking aspect of it. She was always so outgoing.”

Nordman, who owned his own travel business, says Paintin was an astute businessperson. But what really set her apart, he recalls, was the love she had for the local business community, her fellow small business owners and a willingness to help them however possible.

“She was a real cheerleader for the business community. She always wanted to find a way to get things done. Her attitude was if you were going to complain about something, you better be prepared to do something about it,” he says.

“She just loved business and the business community, especially helping young people get started in business. She had a real burn for it and we were all the better for it.”

Paintin continued as a cheerleader for small business even after closing her shop. She went on to publish her own coffee shop newsletter, Small Talk Connections, that provided a voice for many small and home-based businesses.

About the same time, Paintin began doing freelance writing for a number of other publications including the Transcontinental community newspapers. She contributed a regular column to the weekly papers titled Shades of Grey, which focused on the needs and concerns of people 55 and older.

Claudine Gervais was a writer and editor with the community newspapers and worked with Paintin for several years beginning in the late 1990s.

Gervais says what she remembers best about Paintin was how much she cared about the people whose stories she told and the energy she brought to everything she did.

“I was always entertained when she was in the office. It was fun when she was around, even when she was a little brassy,” Gervais says, laughing.

That boldness was an intrinsic part of who Paintin was and she was never afraid to stand her ground, says her son.

One of his most enduring memories of his mom is the hundreds of letters she wrote to address her concerns with politicians and other public officials. That included former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush, who took the time to respond to one of those letters on official White House stationery in April 1992.

Family and friends knew something wasn’t quite right when Paintin’s razor-sharp wit wasn’t the same beginning in 2017. She was diagnosed with dementia soon after and moved into a personal care home the following year where she lived until her passing.

Fortunately, she was able to reconnect with a piece of her past before her health began to decline. In the 1950s she gave up an infant son, David, to an adoption agency in the U.K. She spent most of her adult life trying to find out what happened to him and in 2014 was finally able to connect with him. He and his adoptive family travelled to Winnipeg in 2016 to visit Paintin, her husband, and their son.

“I’ve got a picture of them meeting up that’s hanging in my classroom,” says Jon, an elementary school teacher in the Winnipeg School Division. “It was at the Perkins on Portage Avenue. We all met and it was a great time. They were a lovely bunch.”