In Celebration of
Marie Cahill
May 11, 1929 - April 16, 2025
Marie Cahill (nee O’Brien) died peacefully at Lakebridge, Ajax Pickering Hospital on April 16 th 2025 at the age of 95.
The daughter of Gladys and John O’Brien, a mayor of the city of Grafton, New South Wales, Marie was quick to remind all that she was a proud Australian.
As a spirited young nurse on the hospital emergency ward in Sydney Australia, she often fended off a certain cub reporter looking for stories. That ambitious writer was to become her future husband Jack Cahill, long-time award-winning journalist for The Toronto Star. Together they lived a life of love, adventure and travel. After immigrating with Jack to Canada in 1956, Marie gave birth to four children in the various cities Jack was posted to as a reporter. This Australian girl bravely weathered Canadian winters and reveled in summering on a sailboat on Lake Ontario with her little brood. In the 1970s she set up home for her family in Hong Kong where Jack was posted as the Toronto Star foreign correspondent in Asia.
As the wife of a war correspondent, she endured several stressful episodes including the disappearance of her husband at sea during the fall of Phnom Penh at the end of the Viet Nam war. When the family returned to Canada, never one to sit still, Marie returned to nursing at Queensway General Hospital where she made many lifelong friends. After retiring she enjoyed sailing and traveling with Jack until his passing in 2005. In her later years Marie continued to travel extensively and into her nineties was still a wiz on the golf course as her proudly displayed Hole in One golf trophy will attest to.
Marie was beautiful, fun, witty, wily and wise, and was deeply loved by her children Tony (Sabine), Sally (David), Kerry (predeceased), and Patrick (Mink), her beloved grandchildren Megan (Adam), Patrick, and Jake, her cherished great grandchildren Ryan and Jack, and her niece Jane (Tim) and family and nephew Peter (Sally) and family.
The family would like to thank the staff of Lakeridge Ajax Pickering Hospital for their excellent care in in her final days.
Cremation has taken place and a private family celebration of life will take place at a future date.