Our Friend Irma

We lost one of our best friends recently. When I say “we,” I’m referring to all of us. All of us in the futon business, and all of us on Planet Earth. Those of us who knew Irma McInnis personally are aware of what we lost. For the rest of you, I’ll try to explain.

The day before the start of the annual Futon Expo is always busy, and it was no different this year in Philadelphia on March 20th. Exhibitors were scrambling to finish their booths, show staff was preparing the registration materials, and Board members were huddling to solve last minute problems.

Irma McInnis used to be in the middle of that Futon Expo swirl, as an active member of the Futon Association Board, but not recently. Although Irma opened one of the first futon stores in Canada, Dream Designs had been evolving into other areas and away from futons.

So, Irma wasn’t with us that day in Philadelphia, and most of us hadn’t seen her in a while, but people were thinking about her. She’d been a memorable part of the early futon business, and her name usually comes up when our gang of futoneers gathers. This year, due to her illness, we were thinking and asking about Irma even more than usual. We didn’t know it yet, but she died that very day.

If you don’t remember Irma, you probably never met her, because she made an impression on everybody. She talked loudly, cared passionately, laughed frequently, argued forcefully, worked tirelessly, dressed fashionably, walked rapidly, joked playfully, read voraciously, remembered details effortlessly, made friends easily, told stories endlessly, and eagerly listened to yours too.

Irma was full of contradictions. She was thoroughly urban, thriving on nightlife and the arts, but she was a country girl, too. Within minutes of meeting Irma, you’d probably learn that she grew up in the relative isolation of Prince Edward Island.

“I’m just like Anne of Green Gables!” she’d say, but I never knew exactly what she meant by that. Irma read more than I did.

In another contradiction, Irma had ten brothers and sisters, but grew up as an only child. She was born ten years after the others, so most of her older siblings had already moved out of the house when Irma was growing up. Her sister Catherine remembers that Irma was a creative, sensitive and inquisitive child.

“She had to know everything about everything,” says Catherine. “She loved to walk on the shore, in the trees, and in the fields. She would discover things and try to learn about them.”
Catherine also recalls that Irma had an early interest in fabrics and sewing. She began sewing at age ten and loved to surprise her sisters with clothes she made for them.

Irma finished high school at age sixteen, and received her university degree in social work at nineteen. Although Irma loved Prince Edward Island and maintained a home there, which she visited every summer, she never returned to stay. Instead, Irma headed west and settled in Vancouver.

Before long, Irma was in business, establishing Vancouver’s first futon store. Her interest in sewing and fashion grew into an interest in natural textiles. Synthetic textiles and fabrics were at the peak of their popularity, but Irma was going in the opposite direction. She was among the first to champion cotton and hemp as fabrics for the home. Her passions spread to include organic foods, the environment, yoga, arts, and literature.

She also became a champion of Commercial Drive, the business district she’d adopted as the home for her business, Dream Designs.

She viewed Dream Designs as a gallery, showcasing unusual fabrics and fabric creations, and hosting artist exhibitions in the store. Irma’s windows were also the object of attention, raising the function of window display to an artistic level. In addition to eye-catching displays, she featured performance artists such as dancers, and once featured nude models who were posing for artists.

“Her store windows were her stage,” remarked Irma’s friend Ara Parker.

“We’re very pure, but we’re not pious,” said Irma, describing Dream Designs to a reporter. She was describing herself, too. Irma was passionate about her beliefs, especially environmental and women’s issues, but she was also loads of fun.

“Irma made friends easily,” remembers her lifelong friend, Robert West. “She went to Barbados on vacation and found herself invited to seaside mansions. Once she threw herself a very campy birthday party in a bowling alley, and invited 100 of her friends. She knew them all, every one of them. Who has that many friends?”

Dave with Irma in Toronto 1999.

“Irma was attracted to people and places that were full of character,” said Nancy Taylor of Dream On Futon, a frequent traveling companion of Irma’s. “We hiked in the deserts of Nevada and went bird watching on the coast of Rhode Island. We were in Louisiana and she got us invited to an alligator farm, and once she insisted that we absolutely had to stay in a Mexican resort that John Wayne used to visit. I thought it was a dump, but Irma loved it!”

Her friends and family agree that Irma was, through it all, a survivor. She prevailed through business reversals, betrayals, and personal tragedies. About ten years ago she lost everything in her home – including her cat – to a fire. All she had left were the contents of her gym bag. She started over and suffered another fire the next year.

“She was a survivor to the end, and very heroic in her dying,” said Robert West. “She was determined to make everyone around her as happy as possible.”

Of course, even the hardiest survivor cannot avoid death, and Irma’s came way too soon. She was 48.

FL