91ֱ��

At first, the family of Nina Dixon had no idea about her lasting impact on her OISE colleagues.

Dixon, who died this past January from complications of a brain tumour, was being honoured during her Celebration of Life this past winter when a throng of OISE students – a plethora of colleagues in her Master of Teaching program – visited to pay their respects and share their stories with the family.

“This came up over and over at the celebration with all her friends and school colleagues,” began James Dixon, her father, “She loved kids, really loved kids. That was one reason, the main reason, she wanted to be a teacher. She really wanted to impact how teaching is done for their betterment,” he added. 

Nina, who would have crossed the Convocation stage this spring with a Master of Teaching, would have love these spirited repartees about politics, philosophy, and education. “She was always disappointed about hearing news stories about lack of funding for education, and she was a very strong believer of the importance of funding public education properly and giving our kids a solid foundation,” added James. 

“She would have been an incredible teacher.”

And, with the Dixons’ effort, as they navigate their grief, the Dixons have set up an opportunity to fundraise for – to give a student a chance to live out Nina’s vision.

“An education can change someone’s life, so to support and guide the educators of tomorrow with this incredible gift is a welcome opportunity,” said Sim Kapoor, director of the Office of Advancement, Communications, and External Relations. “Nina’s passion for education and the impact on her peers will live on in this enduring gift.”

READ MORE: In Memoriam, Nina Sophia Dixon, OISE Student

The daughter, the athlete, the educator, the traveler

From kindergarten onward, she distinguished herself as a gifted and determined student, excelling in spelling bees, poetry contests, and art competitions. 

Her academic achievements were matched by her leadership and character. She earned Honour Roll and Principal’s Awards, was named Valedictorian of Milne Valley Middle School in Grade 8, and later received Female Athlete of the Year in both Grades 11 and 12 at Don Mills Collegiate Institute.

The Dixons are a blended family. James, Nina, and her sister Tia Dixon lost Anne Lise Dixon, his wife and their mother Anne, in 2009. Shortly after, James met Megan Dennis, who herself has two daughters, Phoebe and Sophie, from a previous marriage.

There was immediate chemistry with James and Megan. It started with a coffee shop date but it was immediately clear, and the four daughters met a couple months later. “I remember taking them to the family cottage. It was the first meeting, and just such a golden moment with my two – Nina and Tia – meeting Megan's Phoebe and Sophie, and they hit it off immediately.”

“I would say they never looked back.”

At said cottage, the to-be sisters – who knew about each other and wanted to meet – bonded instantly, and put that chemistry to immediate use. “They wrote a play and performed it in their pajamas for us,” laughed Megan Dennis, Nina’s stepmother. 

At first, Megan apprehensive to the idea of having them meet so quickly. “I couldn't have conceived how well it went,” she said. 

What might have helped is that they all went to different schools. “It wasn't like my eldest was in a school with Nina, who was this supreme athlete, academic, artistic person, whereas Phoebe's strengths are in different fields,” said Megan. “I think it was very good that they each had their own identities at their own schools and their own friend groups, and then had the bonus of coming home to these three sisters that they adored and hang out with just as easily.”

As Nina’s treatment became something more palliative, it was an intensively intimate period for the Dixons. “I'm quite at peace with it, I suppose, because the process was so intensely intimate for the six of us as a family unit for over a year,” said Megan. 

Everyone looked after Nina at home, and then all having the luxury of the sisters being home for months after Nina’s passing. 

“Being around the five people that know what we have been through and having that incredible bond – it's still very much felt, and feels to me that Nina is still very present,” Megan adds, “because that is our family unit. 

“Our family unit doesn't exclude Nina. She's still, you know, part of the six of us.” 

For Megan, she looks for the small fine details to remember her by, little signs that Nina would have loved or reactions she would have. “She was very rambunctious and hilarious, and, I still just feel her very much,” says Megan. “I take great comfort in that, and it's still a surprise that she's not here physically – but, but she is in every other way.”

Pushing through the diagnosis

Her cancer began with vertigo, double vision, headaches and nausea in early 2021 and she was finally diagnosed in early 2022.

But, for Nina, throughout her illness, simply did not stop. Even with the diagnosis, she graduated with Honours from the Health Sciences program at Western University in the fall of 2024.

She also studied abroad, and travelled extensively across the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Austria, Croatia, and Montenegro, New Zealand, Europe, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Barbados. The family says she was driven by curiosity, wonder, and an unquenchable appetite for life. In one immaculate stretch, Nina journeyed to Tromsø, Norway, crossing the Arctic Circle to witness the Northern Lights.

Wherever she went, she connected deeply, leaving people better for having known her.

She continued to her OISE studies, despite the diagnosis. She taught Grade 3 at McKee Public School in Toronto, as part of her first-term practicum.

“She made it through her first term at OISE, basically with a walker,” James said. “She could still walk – with some difficulty. She could still use her hands at that point. 

It was roughly the spring of 2025 when her mobility “just tanked,” James says, that they had a stair lift installed, and they were lifting her when needed.

The family says, had Nina’s health not deteriorated, they are very confident she would have earned her Master of Teaching and gone on to become an effective and highly impactful teacher.

Coping, each day

All of this changed each one of the Dixons. “This experience, while awful, and the end result the absolute worst, my God, it's just been an opportunity to see what incredible children we have,” said Megan, “what Nina endured, how she handled it, and how her sisters rose to the challenge and far exceeded anything you could have imagined. 

“It's a gift to be able to see your children as such extraordinary human beings.”

James recalls one of his last conversations with Nina, reading the novel Kane and Abel to her. “I'm reading this to Nina and she stopped me reading, and she said, ‘Dad, I only have one expectation for you, that you live your life with passion,’” he recalled.