Obituaries

Our beloved Mom, known also as Nani, Aunty Z, Bhabi, Apa, and Zarina or Z to many, embarked on her final adventure on February 25, 2026, leaving a legacy of joy, celebration, boundless love, and enduring strength.

Born August 11, 1943, in Calcutta, India, Zarina was adopted by Kasim Dupley and Julia O’Shea, who provided her an enchanted childhood. Even as partition forced her family to move in 1947 to Chittigong in what is now Bangladesh, thanks to her adoring parents she never lost sight of the beauty the world had to offer. This eye for the wonderful never wavered, helping her develop and maintain decades long friendships with her Loreto Convent boarding school sisters. It stayed even as the India-Pakistan war sent her first husband, Sohail Mansur, on dangerous flight missions while she looked after their two children, Khaled and Omita Mansur. Even through the loss of their third child, Abubakar, Zarina celebrated his memory by hanging a Christmas stocking every year. As 1971 ushered in yet another war, the Bangladesh War of Independence, Zarina did what she had always done, she stayed strong and positive, ensuring her children felt safe through great difficulty.

A few years after the war, with a brief stop in Malaysia, the family journeyed across continents and oceans to make a new home in Toronto, Canada, in 1975. A year later, fuelled by sweets from her first job in retail, Zarina gave birth to Ayesha Mansur (Gonsalves), their second daughter. Working her way up into management, Zarina’s final and most fulfilling job was at Culture Link, helping refugees and new immigrants settle in Canada.

In 1990 she married her second husband Dennis DeCambra, a solid, loving, and dependable soul, a widower at the time and father to Maria DeCambra (McDonald). A calmer life emerged allowing a passion for travel that she carried with her from childhood to blossom. Over the course of the last two decades, Zarina visited more than 15 countries and 30 cities.

Through her children’s marriages her family grew, and as she would say, we are all the wind beneath her wings. This included son-in-law’s Halsey Gonsalves and Stephen McDonald, daughter-in-law Maita Sayo, and beloved grand kiddos Aliyah Mansur and James McDonald.

In 2021, Zarina moved from Toronto to Lindsay into a warm and fun-loving multigenerational home. Four wonderful years were enjoyed before the loss of Dennis in May 2025, shortly followed by her own decline in health. Lung cancer trapped her spirit in a body struggling to breathe. She is now free to traverse the stars and be with all who she loved and who loved her.

We would like to thank the doctors and nurses at Ross Memorial Hospital and Peterborough Regional Health Centre, the palliative care team through Hospice Services, the PSWs and support team at Ontario Health at Home, and the amazing community of friends who have shown so much love and support to Zarina and our family.