Warm, welcoming West Broadway grocery worker a victim of COVID-19 By: Cody Sellar Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Dec. 7, 2020 Last Modified: 8:54 PM CST Monday, Dec. 7, 2020 Updates

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This article was published 06/12/2020 (1438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shirley Picca’s grocery till at Food Fare on Maryland Street was often packed with customers while the other registers remained empty.

For over a decade, shoppers chose her line over the others, just to speak to the smiling worker.

On Dec. 4, the West Broadway fixture died of COVID-19. She was 70.

“Shirley was a special, special lady,” said Food Fare owner Ramsey Zeid, who first met her in junior high through his brother, who was friends with her son, Daniele Picca. “We had customers that wouldn’t come in unless she was working.”

Zeid remembers adult shoppers seeking her advice, while kids would often be treated to a lollipop from Shirley’s personal candy pail.

Her family and co-workers remembered Shirley as a generous woman who would do anything for her granddaughters, Calla, Anniston and Adley.

“We would’ve liked to have her a little longer,” Daniele said Monday, his voice cracking. “Especially the girls.”

“Shirley was a special, special lady. We had customers that wouldn’t come in unless she was working.”
– Food Fare owner Ramsey Zeid

But she also liked to speak her mind. “She was a tough old bird,” said co-worker Beth Howson.

It was Shirley’s seemingly unfaltering positivity and willingness to connect with others that endeared her to the West Broadway community.

She did get angry, however, when Zeid told her to stay home for a couple weeks after she began to feel ill. She hadn’t wanted to miss a day. That time, Shirley was tested, and the results came back negative. She remained off work for two weeks, then returned for a single day.

She began complaining of a pain in her side — first thought to be kidney stones and later discounted — but nurses tested her for the virus again as a precaution. This time, the tests came back positive.

Shirley was admitted to the COVID-19 unit at Grace Hospital on Remembrance Day, marking the start of a tumultuous battle.

“It was the worst rollercoaster you could possibly be on,” Daniele said. For the first few days, she was lucid and texting often. “So, we thought she was just recovering in the hospital,” he said.

But when the texts stopped on the first Saturday in the hospital, Daniele called the ward. They told him she’d been moved to the intensive-care unit and intubated overnight. From then, Shirley fought but the virus gripped tighter and tighter.

“Literally, it was like one step forward, two steps back,” said Daniele. “We’d get good news one day, bad news the next two days.”

Her condition worsened, and family had a priest on hand via FaceTime to watch over her. But Shirley fought through a little longer — just long enough to be deemed non-infectious and moved to an ICU where Daniele and his daughters could see her.

“We would’ve liked to have her a little longer. Especially the girls.”
– Daniele Picca

The family was able to do what many have not during the pandemic — they said goodbye. Shirley died that day.

During this time, Shirley’s granddaughters started collecting donations of gift cards for food to give to health workers at Grace Hospital, each enclosed inside hand-made cards they gathered from families and school classrooms. They’ve dropped off two baskets of gift cards worth $2,900.

The next batch of cards from the caring group — calling themselves The Kindness Project Winnipeg — goes out to workers at St. Boniface Hospital.

“If (Shirley) found out that they were doing this, she would probably be crying,” Daniele chuckled. “Well, she’d cry at anything,” he said.

As Shirley’s family and co-workers mourn, they have one plea: Take the pandemic seriously.

“Please stay at home, don’t gather, wear your masks and do the right thing,” said co-worker Jackie Sikora. “But for the people that don’t take it seriously, they make me angry — really angry.”

city.desk@freepress.mb.ca