Margaret Peggy Stewart Gibson

As a kid who knew everything, I knew my mom really well. With time, jobs, children, mortgages, expenses… life, I found that I came to know less and less… but I can never forget my mom. I am probably still alive today because she never let me leave for school without a toque on my head, and my coat done up to my neck.

She supported all my interests and activities. When I played organized sports she and dad came to watch at the soccer pitch, usually in driving rain and ankle deep mud, never missing a single game, or a single goal.

Many moons ago me and buddy Gary were building a wooden push car racer to compete with kids on the street. Mom was out there with me measuring, sawing, hammering, and assembling my little first attempt at building a race car. The car did really well, Gary did not do so well as a motor.

In later years when my attention turned to real cars mom would still help me. I have a favorite story with mom, when she helped me to assemble a performance exhaust system on my ancient Mustang, spinning on the bolts and turning the wrenches from inside while I held the accursed thing up, locating the bolts into the holes from underneath. When the rad sprang a leak Mom was there too, to help me bolt in the new one, pour in antifreeze from one of her kitchen mixing bowls, and help me keep the old beater running.

When I got involved in organized super stock drag racing mom was still there, helping me on a nice weekend afternoon to wash and wax the race car. She would and always did lend support in any way her crazy son needed.

Mom was trained in painting and art at the Barnes School of Art in Montreal. That creative gene has been passed to her children and grandchildren and is evident in their work and in their careers. Mom used to give art lessons to friends and children after school for many years, a group of kids after school painting and chatting around our dining room table. She used her talents and love of handicrafts to be active in the Lakeshore Artisans Guild on the West Island.

I am most proud of my mom’s service in the Royal Canadian Navy with HMCS Protector out of Sydney Nova Scotia. Back in those days they found out what you did well and put you to work doing just that. As an artist and illustrator, and in the time before there was Polaroid or phone cams, mom was working at meeting the returning convoys of ships filled with injured soldiers and sailors and using her drawing skills to illustrate those injuries to assist doctors and medics back on shore with the swift analysis and treatment of those injuries. What a tremendous service to her country, and I can only imagine what she has seen and the wartime conditions in which she served.

Mom was always involved in the Girl Guides of Canada for as long as I can ever remember, actually starting in the Brownie and Guide movement when she was quite young herself. Mom and dad actively participated in the building of the Pine Beach Community Center hall, and she went about forming a Brownie pack now that she had a location to house them. She figured on a little troop of a dozen or fifteen girls or so, but got a first day registration of over fifty, becoming the first Brownie leader in the division’s history, and earning her the nickname and moniker that would follow her for life… Brown Owl. It was interesting to hear grown women many years out of Brownies meet Mom at the Dorval Shopping Center with a Hi Brown Owl! In subsequent years the Pine Beach and Dorval divisions of the Guides became one of the largest and most successful groups in the country that has sustained for decades. Our whole family was involved, with dad helping brownies to pass their criteria for earning badges, us helping to teach semaphore and knot-tying, and how not to set a campsite in flames while burning your lunch over a campfire.

Mom went on to become a national level guiding trainer and later Eastern Canada commissioner. She was invited down to speak with the Guides in Mexico, went down for a few weeks to help them build their organization there, and has represented the Guides at diverse functions including Camporees in Canada and America, and even at a Canadian Forces base in Chibougamou, Quebec.

Even with the condition mom has been living with for the last few years, she has powerful memories about her beloved Girl Guides of Canada, remembering every name of every girl, every jamboree, every camp, and every campfire.

Me and Jim? Our house was the Girl Guide cookie sales depot, so we had a box of cookies to take to school for lunch almost every day. Yeah, we had a lot of friends at our lunch table.

Some time ago the Guides recognized mom’s contribution on a national scale by making her a permanent member for life, and to her last day she is the longest serving member in the country, maybe in the Commonwealth.

During all this activity mom was the founding member of the Pine Beach knitting club, a gaggle of ladies that met socially for many decades. She also served as President of the Strathmore Women’s Club, organizing community events, volunteering and staging charity bazaars for the benefit and betterment of her community, her beloved City of Dorval. She was also active in the executive of the Dorval Horticultural Society, organizing, managing and appointing talents to help as necessary, including hauling dad in to act as registrar and keeper of the records. She loved handicrafts and making homey little gifts for people and never missed a function of the Lakeshore Artisans Guild, which she was a member of seemingly forever.

It has been a struggle for all of us to live with mom’s health conditions in her latest years, but I would be forever remiss if I did not thank the loving and lovely people from her other family at CHSLD Bussey… Maxi and Jean… as professional and personable people as you will ever have the privilege to meet, who nursed her and cared for her and immensely helped Dad, Jim and I through the ups and downs of mom’s last time with us.

So there you have it, that’s my mom. A leader, mentor, trainer, artist, illustrator and volunteer in the service of her country. A full life of service to her community, to her city, to her friends and to her country. Now it is time for you to rest Mom, and for others to continue the work in life that you started.

Goodbye, Brown Owl, and good night.

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Margaret ( Peggy ) Gibson

December 31st, 1924 - August 15th, 2013

Passed away peacefully at the Bussey Residence Lachine, with her family by her side.

Beloved wife of 64 years to husband Gerry. Loving Mother to Jim (Valerie) and Ross (Nancy), Nana to Robert, CHristine, Matthew, Kyle and Kayleigh. Peggy is survived by her sister Edith Bailey of Edmonton.

A celebration of her life will be held at Collins Clarke MacGIllivray White (222 Autoroute 20, Pointe Claire, QC. A visitation will take place on Saturday, August 24th, 2013 at 10am, follopwed by a service in the chapel at 12pm with reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to CHSLD Bussey (centre d'hébergement et de soins longue durée-2069 boul. St-Joseph, Lachine QC, H8S 4B7).