TORONTO — Ruth Gryfe, left, who died late last month after a brief illness at age 92, will be remembered for her fierce loyalty to her family and for her determination to get done what she wanted done.

A founder of Gryfe’s Bagel Bakery with her husband, Arthur, Gryfe worked side by side with him until he died in 1998.

Bernie Gryfe, Ruth’s son, said his father had been a cake baker when his parents opened their business in 1956, but he had never baked a bagel.

“Someone came in, though, and requested bagels. Never saying ‘no,’ my mother took the order, and they spent the night experimenting. The rest is history.”

He said his mother also helped found Ner Israel Yeshiva, an Orthodox high school for boys, in 1959, because she didn’t want his brother to go away to Cincinnati, Ohio, to study.

An attempt had been made previously to get some students together, but it wasn’t successful, Gryfe said. “My mother found students, and the school opened.”

When he was preparing his eulogy, Gryfe said, he was told to keep humour to a minimum, “but it was very difficult. To me, my mother was the funniest woman in the world. She was a Lucille Ball without knowing it.”

Relating one of the stories, he said that when his son was a youngster, he looked out the window and said, “‘Bubbie, there’s a cat outside.’ She looked at it and said ‘That’s not a cat, it’s a dog, and I’ve been feeding it for five years. I would never feed a cat, I hate cats.’

“I looked out and said, ‘Mom, that’s a cat.’ After pondering the situation, her retort was ‘You know, I always thought there was something fishy about that dog. I never heard it bark once in five years.’”

It’s hard to remember his mother with sadness, he said, “because I can’t remember any time she made me sad.”

Barbara Gryfe Hakuk, Gryfe’s daughter who now lives in Israel, said she’s now a professional singer who got her start because her mother got her on the radio. “If she wanted something, she would not stop for anything.”

She said that her mother’s love for Yiddishkeit was unlimited. She was always grateful for everything and always said “Baruch HaShem.”

She even taught her dedicated caregiver, Reine Abad, to say it, Gryfe Hakuk said.

Gryfe’s grandson, Daniel, said that in his travels, he’s always asked if Ruth Gryfe is his grandmother. “[I would hear the same story] time and time again. When they came into our store, they remember getting a piece of bagel from a nice, short, Jewish woman,” he said in his eulogy.

“Yiddishkeit was my grandmother’s essence. She prided herself on her affiliation with Ner Israel, and her family was her life. Each of her children had their special place in her heart.”

Gryfe is survived by her daughter Barbara, sons Moishe and Bernie, as well as eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, Arthur, and a son, Hershy.