A Century of service: celebrating Sister Marguerite Gibbs, IHM
Sister Marguerite Gibbs still lives by the hallmarks of her first 100 years – to stay active in mind and body.
Sister Marguerite celebrated her centennial birthday on May 3.
She requested a low-key celebration. When asked about the flavor of cake she’d prefer, she said, “I like everything. I am not fussy.” Still, the IHM community is planning a celebration. Her nieces and nephews will be coming from Chicago, South Carolina, and Detroit. And she has plenty of good memories to remember and share.
She grew up in Flint, the youngest child with a brother Tom and a sister Mary. She entered the IHM in 1943 and took the religious name of Sister Edwarda. There she found what she loved to do: teaching. She said her great joy has been “teaching little children how to be independent in their work and teaching teachers at the university level to be better teachers.” She used the innovative program “The Workshop Way” with her own students and taught it to education majors at Xavier University in New Orleans for 17 summers.
Her 50 years in classrooms were in Monroe, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Trenton. She spent 13 years in Coldwater, Mich., as teacher, principal and administrator. She ended up spending 30 years doing pastoral care in Pensacola, Fla., where she rode her bicycle to work every day. Naturally active, she also enjoyed “swimming with the manatees.”
Her retirement years in the Motherhouse have been filled with hobbies, especially sewing for her sisters in community, as well as sculpting and painting, piano and guitar, working in the development office, and doing a little veranda gardening.
Well into her 90s, Sister Marguerite drove to the YMCA three times a week to work out. She still likes to exercise every day after her favorite breakfast of oatmeal, cranberry juice and prunes. She takes an exercise class and walks.
As for exercising her mind, she plays games on her computer and watches game shows on TV. A people person, she welcomes all visitors.
Living at the Motherhouse is a blessing. “I have always felt close to God,” she said. “Being here at the Motherhouse has been marvelous. So many people here to help me, like God would help me. So willing and helpful to my needs. They are good to me.”
Sister Marguerite is grateful for her century filled with service, adventure, learning, teaching and joy. She offers this formula for a happy 100th: Be happy with yourself and make others happy by helping them.
Moments of Sister Marguerite’s amazing life:
- She and Sister Marie Gatza met as children because Marie’s aunt and uncle lived next door to the Gibbs family. They all played together when Marie visited.
- She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Marygrove and a Master’s degree in Education from Wayne State University.
- On her 50th jubilee, Father Mike Reed shared, “There is a gentle love that exudes from her for everyone.”
- When she walked into her classroom wearing the short habit for the first time, a boy whistled. She thought, “Well, I must not look so bad.”
- Her mother had died when she was three years old.
- She tries to walk every day, “because it’s important when you’re older to exercise!”
- With the appointment of a new pope, Sister Marguerite will have lived through nine papal reigns—a testament to her long life and the Church’s evolving theological journey.
- While she appreciated Florida’s warmth, she still loves Michigan’s changing seasons.
- She calls her friend Betty Flynn, whom she met in Pensacola every Saturday. They lived on the same street and Sister Marguerite would ride her bike past her house and stop and talk. They have been friends for decades.
- She prays every day.
- On becoming a public school principal in Coldwater, she reflected, “They asked, and I said yes!”—a hallmark of her open-hearted approach to life.