Sybil Grove Plommer

Syb died peacefully at home in West Vancouver on June 22nd, 2019, having recently celebrated her 91st birthday. With her were her son Tim, his wife Vanessa, and Syb's good friend Pat. Bom to English parents in Hankow's (now Wuhan) international settlement, Syb embarked early on a life of exploration and adventure. As the Japanese invasion of China reached Hankow in the late

1930s, Syb's early schooling ended in dramatic fashion as she and her parents sailed for England

on one of the last evacuation ships to leave the city's international enclave. Settling in Leicester,

England, Syb resumed her schooling against a backdrop of the Second World War. Keen to see the world, and escape an overbearing mother, she hitch-hiked around post-war Europe and in 1951 sailed the Atlantic to Montreal for a holiday. In 1952, she visited Vancouver, and stayed.

She loved skiing, was a regular tennis player and golfer and an avid bridge player - shuttling in recent years between games at homes of fellow devotees, at the Capilano Golf Club, at West

Vancouver Senior's Centre and at tournaments around the Pacific North-West. Syb started her working career as a secretary but made a successful switch to selling real estate in 1960. Her first marriage was to a talented artist who fathered Tim but otherwise proved to have ... a highly unreliable streak. Her second marriage, to her divorce attorney, Bob Plommer, QC, lasted

from 1971 until his death in 2011. After Bob's retirement in 1989, the couple lived for 19 years in

Kamloops where they commissioned a Fred Hollingsworth house on the third fairway of

Rivershore Golf Club. Between holidays in the US and Britain, Syb played many games of golf and

bridge, and served a term as Ladies Captain at Rivershore. Never able to stay away from politics,

she was also active helping the Reform Party, and later Conservatives, in Kamloops. In 2008, she and Bob retumed to West Vancouver. Syb sat through countless rainy soccer games played by her grandchildren and enjoyed a busy social life spent with her huge collection of friends.

The eternal optimist, Syb had a contagious enthusiasm for life. She is survived by her son Tim (Vanessa); step-children Leslie, Hamish (Janet), Evan (Christy);grandchildren Matthew, Maxie (Lucy), Emily, Will, Hart, Alex, Jack, Jacoba and great-grandchildren Oscar and Edward.