'Grandma's in the light': Family mourns woman fatally stabbed in North York parking lot

Soli Pestonji said he knew something was wrong when 1 p.m. rolled around and his wife, Shahnaz Pestonji, wasn't home yet.

Thursdays were her grocery shopping days. Shahnaz usually left home around 9 a.m. and came back home by 11:30 a.m., often carrying bags from a couple of different stores.

But this week was different. Shahnaz never came home.

"I've had a long life and I've met a lot of people but I never knew anybody like her," Pestonji said.

Shahnaz, 71, was fatally stabbed in a North York parking lot on Thursday in what police say was an unprovoked attack.

She and her husband celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary earlier this month. He had no way of knowing it would be their last.

"She was the love of my life. She was the most wonderful person I've ever met," Pestonji said.

Material things meant "nothing" to Shahnaz, Pestonji said as he sat in his home with family pictures scattered around and the silence of a partner gone too soon.

'The kindest person'

Daughters Yasmin Pestonji and Dina Pestonji said they're choosing to remember their mom for who she was, not how she died.

"There's no rhyme or reason. And if we spend time thinking 'Why did this happen?' we're going to drive ourselves mad," Yasmin said.

"We're really trying to remember the good and the positive and to not go back to how it ended, but to what a beautiful, beautiful life she had and all the beauty she gave us and the kindness and the love."

Shahnaz was a retired nurse, a wife, a grandmother and a mom. That's how her family is choosing to remember her.

Still, they're devastated. 

"How could this happen to my mom? She's literally the kindest person," she said. 

Yasmin is currently pregnant with her second child. When the family came home Thursday, her two-year-old daughter, who was named after Shahnaz, ran to the door and asked where her grandmother was. 

"Grandma's in the light, grandma's in your heart, grandma's always here," Yasmin says she responded.

Just last weekend, the family celebrated Yasmin's daughter's birthday at her parents' home.

Yasmin says her mom loved being a grandmother. The family recalls telling her not to tire herself out so much but she consistently told them she was lucky to be surrounded by people who kept her busy.

"The world's suffering with one less person like that around," Yasmin said.

'A part of our family is missing'

Dina says her yet-to-be-born nephew won't get to meet her mom. But Yasmin joked that Shahnaz felt the most kicks out of anybody. 

"[The] baby has felt grandma's hands and … her voice and her laugh and she's with us everywhere," she says. "She's with us right now. Because every time I look outside and I just see the light, I know my mom is there."

Dina, who is Shahnaz and Pestonji's eldest daughter, recalls getting into a car crash some years back, which caused her to have a stroke. At the time, her parents flew to California and spent time with her in the hospital.

"She made me laugh, she made me smile. And just having her there was everything," Dina said. "[My mom] made those two weeks that were miserable for me so fun because we just got to be together."

Now, they'll have to recover without her.

"A part of our family is missing," Dina said.

Pestonji died in hospital, Toronto police said in a news release on Thursday. She was attacked while loading groceries into her car. 

Earlier on Thursday, Duty Insp. Phil Sinclair told reporters the incident was an "unprovoked" attack, judging from surveillance video.

Police said officers found her with stab wounds after they were called to the area of Parkway Forest Drive and Sheppard Avenue E. at around 9:35 a.m. 

Police told CBC Toronto via email Friday that they're still looking for the suspect. 

"Since the homicide took place, police have conducted an extensive search – canvassing door-to-door, using canine units and drones – and we continue to follow every investigative lead," police said.