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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Sybil Gibbon–100 years young and going strong

by

Charles Kong Soo
1419 days ago
20210911
Sybil Gibbon

Sybil Gibbon

Sybil Gib­bon, nee Shep­pard, is 100 years young to­day.

Gib­bon was one of 13 chil­dren and lived her ear­ly days on Rich­mond Street, Port-of-Spain. Be­ing the ninth of 13 chil­dren, when her fa­ther died at a young age, she was brought up by her old­er sis­ters, as her moth­er was busy keep­ing the home go­ing.

She mar­ried Patrick Gib­bon and moved to St Au­gus­tine where they lived for over 50 years with their four chil­dren Roger, Jen­nifer, David (de­ceased), and Don.

Sybil Gibbon

Sybil Gibbon

The cen­te­nar­i­an is af­fec­tion­ate­ly known as “Granny” to her eight grand­chil­dren and “GG” to her 15 great-grand­chil­dren. Her 16th great-grand­child will be born in a cou­ple of weeks and she is look­ing for­ward to yet an­oth­er ba­by to kiss and hold.

To this day, Gib­bon re­mains not on­ly an ex­cep­tion­al moth­er but an in­cred­i­ble moth­er-in-law to Don­na, Jacque­line and John (de­ceased), grand­moth­er and great-grand­moth­er. She is loved by every­one, in­clud­ing the friends and fam­i­ly of her grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren, neigh­bours and ac­quain­tances.

To Gib­bon, fam­i­ly is the rea­son for life. She came from a large fam­i­ly that cel­e­brat­ed to­geth­er of­ten, most­ly with mu­sic and dance. She was a very de­vot­ed wife to Patrick, her de­ceased hus­band.

Sybil Gibbon with her son Roger Gibbon after he won gold in the Match Sprint event, British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, 1966.

Sybil Gibbon with her son Roger Gibbon after he won gold in the Match Sprint event, British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, 1966.

Ac­cord­ing to her old­est son, for­mer T&T cy­clist and dou­ble Com­mon­wealth Games gold medal­list, Roger Gib­bon, “We lived a mid­dle-class life in St Au­gus­tine. She taught us how to love and be loved, to be re­spect­ful and above all to be hon­est at all times, and to be sat­is­fied with what ma­te­r­i­al things we had.

“Her ‘live and ex­ist with love’ con­cept, has kept our fam­i­ly to­geth­er as a well-knit unit, and we are all ex­treme­ly in­debt­ed to her for show­ing us by ex­am­ple, how to be com­fort­able in a trou­bled world, and to love each oth­er.”

When asked about COVID-19, she said “This too will pass and you will for­get all about it be­fore you know it.”

When Gib­bon was able to get the vac­cine, she took it will­ing­ly, at the age of 99.

This is Sybil Gibbon and her husband, Patrick, at their 50th wedding anniversary some years ago.

This is Sybil Gibbon and her husband, Patrick, at their 50th wedding anniversary some years ago.

Roberto Codallo

She lived a healthy life, full of morals and to this day, re­mains de­vot­ed to her pre­cious church. She is thrilled that Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has re­opened church­es “just in time to cel­e­brate my 100th birth­day at church.”

Gib­bon's life was not with­out stress as she has sur­vived her hus­band, her 12 sib­lings and their spous­es, her son Dave and al­most all of her long-time friends. She has thrived on liv­ing a sim­ple life and be­ing com­fort­able with the lit­tle things that mean so much to her.

When asked what it takes to live to 100, Gib­bon said “Thank God for let­ting me live this long and be blessed with such a love­ly fam­i­ly. I had a kind hus­band who was very good to me.”

 Sybil Gibbon with her family. Missing is her grandson Marc and daughter Jennifer and her family who live in Australia.

Sybil Gibbon with her family. Missing is her grandson Marc and daughter Jennifer and her family who live in Australia.

Her life was and will al­ways be cen­tred around her chil­dren and their ex­tend­ed fam­i­lies, her many nieces and nephews and her beau­ti­ful neigh­bours at her cur­rent home.

Those who know her swear she does not have a bad bone in her body. She is ac­cept­ing and un­der­stand­ing of hu­man is­sues and knows that while life is not per­fect, it must be lived with love, heart and soul.

We should all take a page out of Gib­bon’s book, her fam­i­ly be­lieves.


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