(Born - April 7th, 1925----- Died – October 8th, 2019)
Last Tuesday, in the late afternoon of October 8th, our mother Shirley died peacefully. She left us willingly, encompassed by the love of all who were with her at the time of her passing.
Shirley was an Esquimalt girl who came into this world on April 7th, 1925, the first-born daughter of Harold and Winnie Ockenden. She was later joined by two more sisters, Mavis and Carol and her little brother, Dave. The Ockenden house was situated on Dockyard Road right above the beach and the children spent many happy hours playing on and in its chilly waters.
In 1942, due to the war, the land was expropriated for expansion of the Naval Dockyards and the family moved to Central Ave, deep in Oak Bay. Shirley was in Grade 12 and because she wished to graduate from Esquimalt High, biked every day to her old school. After graduation she attended Victoria College at what is now Craigdarroch Castle. It was during that time that she met our father, Robert (Bob) Hibberson while babysitting on Shoal Bay beach. Love blossomed and they married in Esquimalt on September 28th, 1944. Their honeymoon was spent amidst the Gulf Islands using Dad’s beautiful 14-foot, clinker-built boat. This was soon followed by a move up island to Port Alice, where they worked in the mill grading pulp to make rayon for the Canadian Airforce.
In 1946, when Dad obtained a job in the Department of Mines, they moved back to Victoria and began the slow process of building a home on Byng Street for themselves and what was soon to become a family. Robin was born in 1946. She was joined two years later by the twins, Elizabeth and John and then a few years later by Ruth.
Our mum was a great mother. But she was far more than that. Highly intelligent, she was a constant reader. She loved the sheer joy of words, their derivation and use, the very magic they could weave. As an extension of this, she became a highly skilled calligrapher, taking courses and joining a group who were just as enthusiastic.
Yet for Shirley, if there was a true passion, it was music. She played piano, coerced her reluctant children into taking lessons … something for which they later thanked her. She loved CBC Radio and listened daily to Bob Kerr’s “Off the Record”. She was a long serving member of Oak Bay St. Mary’s church choir, singing as an alto, loving the intricacies of the parts. She smuggled a recorder into the house and started playing with her friends, later forming a recorder group who met at our home and theirs for ‘tooting’ sessions. She was also a supporting member of Victoria’s Early Music Society for many years. She didn’t stop there. Wishing to learn more about the time period for popular recorder and choral music, in 1978 and ’79 she took two courses at UVIC in Renaissance and Baroque Music. And can we ever forget the long line of early music records beside her turntable which were her constant companions!
Shirley was predeceased by her husband Robert (Bob) Hibberson in 2006 and her sisters Mavis Carter in 2003 Carol Ferguson in 1993. Shirley Elizabeth Hibberson leaves behind her four children; Robin (Stewart) Taylor, John (Bev) Hibberson, Elizabeth (Allen) Finch, Ruth Hibberson, seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and her brother Dave (Sherron) Ockenden. She deeply loved them all and they loved her deeply in return. We will all be profoundly grateful to her for passing on her passions, and shall do our best to mirror them.
We would like to thank Dr. Manning, Dr. Rosenfeld, Dr. Trouton and the staff at Sunrise Senior Living for their excellent care. We would like to thank her nieces Laura Ockenden and Susan MacRae and dear friend Laure Newnham for their special support and care.
A service of remembrance will take place in the spring.
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