Mary Reiko Varro.Courtesy of family
Mary Reiko Varro: Internee. Wife. Mother. Jays fan. Born Oct. 31, 1931, in New Westminster, B.C.; died July 21, 2025, in Toronto, of undiagnosed natural causes; aged 93.
As a child, Mary Yamaguchi and her family lost everything – home, businesses, possessions – and were expelled from their home in British Columbia after the Second World War. Mary’s early life was marred by injustice and displacement, but moving to Ontario in 1948 was a turning point for her.
Mary lived in New Westminster, B.C., with her older sister Grace and younger brothers Paul and Frank in an apartment above her parents’ barbershop and boarding house. Kaneko and Shogoro Yamaguchi were Japanese immigrants who had an arranged marriage; their hard work and intelligence powered two businesses. They were building a life for their family until everything changed on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
The Yamaguchis, along with 22,000 other Japanese Canadians, were deemed “enemy aliens” and forced into internment under the War Measures Act. Their home, businesses and most of their belongings were confiscated. Mary, her mother and siblings were sent to Kaslo, an isolated mining village in B.C.’s Kootenay mountains, where they shared one room in the old Langham Hotel with an elderly couple. Mary’s father worked as a road labourer, separated from his family for two years.
The Yamaguchis endured internment with dignity and resilience. After the war, Japanese Canadians were pressured to leave B.C. and the family moved to Hamilton, Ont., to rebuild their life. Mary graduated from Westdale Secondary School and enrolled in the Hamilton General Hospital School of Nursing, a career path aligned with her natural caregiving instincts, though she cited the children’s ward as a “pet peeve” in her graduation yearbook.
Mary Yamaguchi and Bert Varro married in July, 1955 in Hamilton, Ont.Courtesy of family
While working as a student nurse at Hamilton General, Mary met Bert Varro, a gregarious young orderly who fled Hungary during the Second World War. Mary and Bert fell in love. Their interracial relationship defied societal norms and the wishes of her parents, but Mary chose who to love and how to live. After her graduation in 1955, the couple eloped and moved to Toronto.
Bert found work as a machinist while Mary was a full-time nurse until retirement. They toiled, scrimped and saved with their children, Michael and Mary Jane, in a little brick bungalow in Swansea. Mary loved to keep fit and dragged Mary Jane and Michael out of bed to go jogging with her − up and down the long hills south of Bloor Street. The children hated jogging, but it helped instill in them a lifelong commitment to fitness.
Bert and Mary enjoyed Saturday night dances with friends at the Legion. They were also faithful fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. They sat in the snow at the team’s wintry first game in 1977 and were season ticket holders. They went to spring training and travelled with the fan club. Mary scored games; Bert socialized (too often with “tarp off”). They created “the shrine” – a basement room filled with Jays paraphernalia, including a life-sized cutout of catcher Ernie Whitt. Though the shrine induced cringes from their children, they too became avid Jays fans.
Mary Varro's family moved to Hamilton to rebuild their lives after enduring internment with dignity and resilience.Courtesy of family
Bert died of cancer two months after the team’s 1992 World Series win, but Mary was at the SkyDome when Joe Carter walked it off in 1993. They would have been ecstatic with the 2025 Jays.
Mary was a widow for 33 years, but she lived happily and actively. One bright spot was doting on her grandson, Hunter. Another was quilting with friends, which Mary said “saved my life” after Bert died. She kept him close at heart, and was quick to offer a megawatt smile, especially when the Jays won. Mary died peacefully on what would have been her 70th wedding anniversary.
Mary’s life wasn’t defined by suffering, bitterness, racism or the harshness of history; rather it was shaped by how she overcame hardships, how she rebuilt her life and how she served others. After her wartime displacement, she reached a better place, guided by love, bravery and reconciliation.
Mary Varro was a champ.
Mary Jane Varro is Mary’s daughter and Jim MacDonald is her son-in-law.
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