According to Q magazine May 2007, the inspiration behind this heartbreaking tale of suicide and loss was a 21-year-old girl from Montreal named Nancy Challies, who took her own life after being forced by her family to put her baby son up for adoption.
In 2011, the writer Tim Challies revealed that the Nancy about whom Cohen wrote this song was his aunt, who lived from 1943-1965 when she killed herself using a gun belonging to her 15-year-old brother (Tim's father). She spent much of her teenage years in psychiatric hospitals, and sometime around age 20, she had a baby that she was coerced into giving up for adoption. Challies quotes Cohen as telling him: "It is her beauty and bravery that shine through. Many young women of the time came up against the hard limitations of family and society, although not every confrontation ended so sadly."
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