We’re used to hearing about retirement as a finish line – a moment to step back, slow down, and fade quietly into leisure. But for a growing number of people, the prescribed retirement age isn’t a deadline, it’s a doorway. In this series, we’ll meet the people who are rewriting the script on aging – and ultimately proving that sometimes, the most meaningful work begins when everyone else thinks it’s time to stop.
Myra Sable, 84
Owner, Sable & Rosenfeld, a gourmet food company
HOME BASE: Toronto
CLAIM TO FAME: Longtime entrepreneur, music lover, art collector and food connoisseur
HEAD START: I was born in Lakewood, N.J. After my father died, when I was 13, we moved to Toronto because my mother was Canadian. She opened a nursing school, which was really incredible for a woman in those years, to be entrepreneurial. Even though she never promoted that idea, it must have caught on, because when one of the kids in Lakewood died of leukemia, I opened a little fudge stand in front of our house as a fundraiser. I look back, and I’ve always been cooking or selling food.
THE PIVOT: I interviewed Carol Rosenfeld, a wonderful home cook and hostess, for a food column in the Toronto Telegram. We bonded instantly. She had four little children and I had three. She was from a small town in Pennsylvania and I was from a small town in New Jersey. Carol said: “Why don’t we go into business together?” We started making gourmet food products like mustard and antipasto.
LUCKY BREAK: Carol and I had this tiny booth at the back of a New York food convention. Our first person was the Neiman Marcus buyer. She said, “I love the packaging. I love the flavours. I’d like it for 147 stores.” We rented a little basement kitchen in a shul, and we got it done. We opened a Toronto boutique in the Creeds store, and bought products from Fauchon in Paris, Fortnum & Mason in London and Godiva in Brussels. Carol’s husband died in 1970, and she left the business. I’ve done it myself ever since.
STATE OF THE UNIONS: I’m on my third marriage, and I don’t think any of them were a mistake. It wasn’t all good, obviously, because I left two, but I’m lucky I’ve had all those lives. I had children with my first husband, Jared Sable, who owned the Jared Sable Gallery in Yorkville, so it was about Canadian art. My second husband, Roger Davidson, introduced me to collecting fabulous American artists, and I even met Andy Warhol. My third husband, Derryck Cox, who I’ve been married to for 30 years, is Jamaican, and we travel a lot. I’ve lived a life most people don’t get a chance to live.
KITCHEN BREAK: I’m not so interested in cooking. I’ve done enough of that over the years, and the city is so alive with food. I try as many restaurants as I can and go out to eat at least twice a week.
COOKING WITH GAS: When I was in my 50s and 60s, people kept telling me: “Myra, you need an exit plan.” But I don’t think I need one. I’ll do it as long as I want to do it, and when I’m done, I’m done.
TASTE OF THE FUTURE: I’m working on three savoury shortbread cookies. We’re also working to bring more technology into the company. My six grandchildren help keep me in the loop. One of them recently asked, “Have you ever considered AI for doing some of your ads?” I thought it was a great idea.
FUTURE-PROOFING: I have to have people around, I have to read, I have to learn on my computer. I have to keep my mind fresh. I walk almost every morning for about two hours. Walking truly nurtures me. —As told to Andrea Yu
A version of this article appeared in the Dec 2024/Jan 2025 issue with the headline ‘Myra Sable,’ p. 24.
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