Peacefully at home, after a brief illness.
Wife to Graham, mother of Brent (Monique) and David (Fiona), and devoted grandma of Claire and Megan. Survived by her sister Florence Jarrett in North York, Ontario.
The fourth of five children, Mari McWhirter grew up in Millikin on the northern edge of Toronto and was a champion sprinter. An adventurous and independent young woman, Mari traveled across Canada and North America, working on the Columbia Icefields, road tripping to Mexico, and hitching rides on logging trucks from Tofino. Eager to escape rainy Vancouver after a year, she set out for Montreal. There, she met Graham Rubeli, the love of her life. They married in 1965, moved to Ottawa in 1968, and lived in the same house for over 50 years.
Mari had an amazingly varied career. She graduated from Journalism at Ryerson Polytechnic, and found work as a journalist, advertising copywriter, public relations officer, and entrepreneur. In Montreal, she famously interviewed Edith Piaf. in Ottawa in the mid 70s, she handled PR for the opening of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. In 1982, to aid Vietnamese refugees, Mari and two friends founded Clothes Encounters of a Second Time, a consignment boutique that remains a fixture on Beechwood Avenue today.
Mari was devoted to her children, family and friends. She was an excellent cook and enjoyed hosting dinners and get-togethers at her beloved home in Ottawa and lunches and apres ski at Mont Tremblant. Her many passions included theater, jazz, mystery novels, gardening, baseball, skiing, tennis and golf.
Mari and Graham traveled the world together, regularly visiting Graham’s family and friends in Australia,road-tripping to Florida, and exploring New Zealand, Fji, Hawaii, the UK, Israel, Jordan, and Malta. They were frequent visitors to Vancouver to see their beloved granddaughters before retiring at their Ottawa home.
When Parkinson’s Disease cramped Graham’s style in the last 15 years of his life, Mari devoted herself to his care and held strong to her vision that they stay at home. All who knew her were inspired by Mari’s strength and resilience as she overcame breast cancer in 2019 and recovered from a hip replacement in 2023 in record time, all the while caring for the person she loved most.
Our thanks go out to the devoted personal support workers who supported Mari over the last five years as she cared for Graham; Esperance, Bayu, Sylvia, Ann-Marie; and also to Drs. A. Dauksza, J.F. Hilton, J. Brodeur, and the devoted nursing team at Bytown Palliative Medicine.
A celebration of Mari’s life will follow in the Summer. Donations can be made to Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Ottawa Community Services Organization, Breast Cancer Action Ottawa, or a charity of your choice.
Digital Guestbook
Ewen Douglas Cornish
Andrew & Debra Sommerfeld
Our sincerest condolences to the Rubeli family. Graham and Mari, wonderful people who really added to our little neighbourhood in so many positive ways for so long. Very sad to lose them.
Maria Rugiano
My deepest and most sincere condolences to the family. May God keep you in his loving arms.
Sarah Read
Sending my love to Brent, Monique and the family. One can only hope to have such a beautiful and full life. May she rest in peace.
Joyce, Nando Barbieri
Our Sincere n Deepest condolences to Brett, Monique, fmly, n friends.
R.I.P.
John Hartin
My deepest sympathies to Rubeli family - and with many wonderful memories of time spent with Graham and Mari as long-time neighbours and great friends at Tremblant.
Pat Holmes
I have known Mari for much of my adult life. It has been a privilege! She faced life and its trials with a quiet confidence and grace. My condolences to her Family and may she now find well deserved peace.
Mille fiore
May she Rest In Peace
Tony Adams
Mari and Graham were dear friends of my late sister Jill Adams who married Doug Harvey-Smith in the early 1960s in Montreal.
My partner Romaine and I visited them in 2012 and stayed in their Ottawa home.
Wonderful couple with two wonderful sons to whom we send our condolences.
Kevin Doyle
I knew Mari ever since the first day I came to Canada from Australia in 1964. She was a strong, kind and smart woman, a wonderful friend and we all loved her. She also was the perfect hostess.
Skiing at Tremblant with her and Graham over the years we met many mutual friends and family.
In later years in the early years of Graham’s Parkinsons when he could still ski, we use to ski behind him, in case he fell, so we could get him back up on his skiis but it was rarely necessary in those days. Mari often called on me on skiing weekends to cook moule et frite.
I came to Canada with Allan Jamieson. We had been at University of Melbourne Chemical Engineering with Bob, Graham’s brother. Our first night in Montreal we were loaned an unfurnished apartment that Mari and her friend Jill Adams had just rented. Waking up in bright sunshine I did not realize that such a nice sunny day in Montreal was quite different from Aussi. Venturing onto the balcony in my PJs I soon learned!!
Our deepest sympathy to her family. We shall miss her.
Mari and her family were long standing neighbours on Meadow Park Place (formerly Meadow Drive) in Ottawa’s old north east end. Her quiet resilience, her sense of humour, her non-confrontational approach to people, her tireless devotion to her family and to her community, all led to a life well lived. My very sincere condolences to the entire Rubeli family.