Obituary of Monica Gibbs

Monica June Gibbs passed away peacefully at the Lloydminster Continuing Care Center early April 28, 2020 in her 98th year.

Monica leaves to mourn her passing: 1 daughter, Cathy (Ian) Hickman; 6 sons, Dennis (Kay), Greg (Audrey), Joe (Lucy), Jon (Rebecca), Mick (Heather) and Tim (Sheila); son-in-law, Wayne Winacott; grandchildren, Cindy (Bobby) Tough, Randy (Dianne) Winacott, Andrew (Kristina) Winacott, Gilbert Winacott, Jeff (Joanne) Chacula, Logan (Elise) Gibbs, Shay Gibbs (Colby Moan), Taryn Gibbs (Cody Bolt), Corinne Hickman (Kevin Unger), Clint (Judy) Hickman, Matthew Gibbs (Shivani Mukerji), Katrina Gibbs, Mary Anne Gibbs, Sarah Gibbs, Jacquelyn (Marc) Moreau, Caitlin (Ian) January, Michael Gibbs, Ben (Terena) Gibbs, David Gibbs, Nikita Gibbs, Kyliena Gibbs, Sadie Gibbs and Charlton Gibbs; great grandchildren, Sydney, Jacob, Kyla, Damien, Mia, Jacob, Gavin, Grace, Sarah, Hailey, M.J., Christopher, Luca, Blake, Rylan, Declan, Layla, Tyson (Skye), Kyle, Julita and Diosdado; and great great grandchild, Gabriel.

Monica was predeceased by: her husband, Horace Gibbs; daughters, Audrey Gibbs and Dorothy Winacott; and grandchild, Daniel Gibbs.

In light of COVID-19 and current health guidelines, the service for Monica will be a private family service.

Donations in memory of Monica may be made to Islay Care Centre or Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation.

Monica's memorial card can be viewed or downloaded from the link below.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/e01ac569-563c-45a9-8c1e-4d1a3d57c36a

Eulogy:

Monica June Hughes was born May 23, 1922 in Lloydminster, SK/AB. She grew up on a farm homesteaded by her parents Archie and Daisy, with her sisters Margaret, Joan and Mary, and brothers Pat and Bill.  As a child she and her sister, Margaret, had boy nick names, [ Dicky and Jonny ]  because they were their dad’s main helpers with the farm work.  Her older brother Pat had a paying job working for his Uncle Mike and Bill, the youngest, was too young at the time to help with the farm work.  Her sisters Joan and Mary helped their mom with all the cooking, housework and gardening. 

Monica “Dickey” idealized her dad and remembered him helping with laundry and looking after the kids when her mom was having one of her migraine headaches.  Mom remembered being tied on the back of a work horse where she fell asleep while her dad worked the fields.  He raised heavy horses and sold them to the lumber yard to subsidize the farm.  A teacher boarded at their place as well. 

When mom was old enough one of her jobs was to help harness the team.  She remembered having to stand in the manger to reach high enough to get the collar on those big gentle giants. Mom also told stories of how much fun it was: NOT: out in the hot sun stooking heavy oat bundles.

On Saturdays it was the kids’ job to butcher a chicken for Sunday dinner.  The staples in those days were potatoes and bread.  All the meat was canned, so fresh chicken on Sunday was a real treat.

She attended a country school, Warwickville, that was a couple miles from the farm.  Most of the time they rode horses to school and the ride home was a lot quicker than the ride to school.  Mom told us stories about having one chance to get on behind with her sister Margaret and if she missed that chance she had to walk home.  The horses had been tied in the barn all day and had no patience to stand around for a second rider to climb on.

There was skating on Probert’s Lake with her siblings and Eva, her best friend, going to dances at a small hall on the road towards Tommy Campbell’s and all the way to Onion Lake for others.  They travelled in a closed in cutter with a wood stove of sorts to keep them warm.  The best part was the horses knew the way home.  It sounded like they all had a good time.

After graduating from high school, Monica took her nurses training.  I think it is amazing that three of the girls in her family got a profession before they got married.  Mom and Aunt Joan were nurses and Aunt Margaret was a teacher.

Monica worked at the hospital in Mannville before she married Horace Gibbs on June 6, 1946. A footnote – Mom’s dad didn’t like Horace at first but the story was, because his dog bit everybody but liked dad ...  A quick honeymoon at Laurier Lake,  then off to the new or maybe used 12 foot by 12 foot  first home sweet home; a  remodelled grain storage bin, on the SW14 53 01 W4th.

Over the next 3 decades she raised 9 lovely children and helped build a sustainable mixed farming business.  Alongside Dad and the growing children they raised cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys,  milked cows,  which was kind of a right of passage for farm  kids , picked and processed many  ice cream pails full  of wild fruit and grew all her  own produce in the biggest loveliest weed free garden.  Jon remembers doing days of weeding.

We went to picnics at Jumbo Hill School and had a great time playing ball.   Trips to the neighbours so the kids could play and the adults catch up on the neighbourhood news. Mom had to be quick on her feet. One outing at the river ,we’ll say dad, set Dennis, who was just a new born baby,  too close to the water’s  edge, then went about getting ready to do some serious fishing. Well mom happened to look over and there was Dennis floating down the river. A quick sprint and all was well, for Dennis…..not sure about dad.                                                    

She somehow found the time to take us for horse rides, tell us stories and sit with us when we were sick. Common cures were Mustard plasters, Barley water, Iodine, Macericomb, brown sugar and coal oil, cod-liver oil, and if all that failed, chicken soup.                                                                                     

Greg was a bit of a handful though and Mom had to tie him to the kitchen table so she could get her work done. When you are making ten loaves of bread, and of course a couple of cake pans of twisters with each batch of bread, and because the oven was warm, trays of cookies [gingersnaps oatmeal and chocolate chip}, and the regular daily jobs of getting the next meal on the go and, of course, something for desert for that meal too, you try to keep interruptions to a minimum.  Therefore you tie Greg to the table leg... Also on the menu were apple pan downy, float batter pudding, rice pudding, milk pudding, and a variety of pies and cakes. On Sundays strawberry short cake and farm fresh, whip cream.

 In the 70’s she went into the “meat” turkey and chicken business raising and butchering over 100 of them.  In one letter she wrote to Cathy, she said it took a month to butcher 92 birds, doing a few each day.  In the 90’s she semi-retired and her and Dad went on a few road trips with their camper van visiting old friends.  She enjoyed more opportunities to eat out instead of having to cook every meal.

In the 2000’s she really started taking it easy and did a lot more reading; that is when she wasn’t teaching the grandkids how to knit, or bake cookies. She would take them for walks up the hill to show them where the crocuses grew or take them for a walk to the creek to see who could throw a rock the furthest and make the biggest splash. Babysitting of course... Michael, one of her most special grandchildren. 

Her daughters and sons and their wives and husbands took very good care of her over the next decade, taking her to all sorts of events and family gatherings.  She went flying with her boys, another great love of hers, and was well entertained by all her multi-talented children and grandchildren.

She made a comment once that Tim should write a book about raising Mother.

She spent her entire life in the same community and had a great attachment to the rolling hills that she could see from her living room window.

 She was a beautiful happy daughter, wife, mother, grannie, great grandma, great great grandma, with a great, great, great zest for life.  She was very proud of her family and reminded us constantly that she loved us....

She passed away April 28, 2020 early in the morning with Tim by her side.

She was the last of The Archie and Daisy Hughes family; may they all find peace in the garden of the Lord.