Obituary of Eva Evelyn Gibbons

To watch the recording of the Service please click this link:
https://video.ibm.com/embed/recorded/130816368

Eva Evelyn Gibbons (nee Parankiwich)

March 7, 1922 – June 9, 2021

Our family is grieving the loss of our Mother, Aunt, Grandmother, and Great-Grandmother who passed away peacefully on June 9 at the age of 99.  Eva was the last surviving member of her family; she now joins the spirits of her sisters Elizabeth and Susan, and her brother Steve.  She was also predeceased by her husband John in 2014.

Eva was born in Ormiston, Saskatchewan in 1922.  She attended school in Viceroy, where she met a handsome gentleman named John Gibbons who caught her eye.  Following her graduation from Teacher’s College, she and John were married in 1943 and celebrated their 70^th wedding anniversary together.  They raised 5 children in Viceroy; Steve (Inez), Bill (Bev), Richard, Candice (John) and Jim (Diana).  

Eva was strong and determined.  She stood up to her dad and insisted she wanted to go to Normal (teacher training) School. 

She was athletic as a young woman; she also was musical and played clarinet in the school band.        

As an adult, Eva was community minded and generous. She was active in the church as a teacher and Sunday School Superintendent. She often sent suppers over to one or two of the bachelors who lived nearby in Viceroy. Her door was open for coffee with neighbors nearly every day until she returned to teaching full time.

Eva loved her siblings, her sisters Elizabeth and Susan and her brother, Steve.  She was close to Steve. They had Sunday morning coffee together every week for many years.  She travelled with her sister Elizabeth to England, Scotland and later to Hawaii.  Her dad lived with her in his final years.

Eva had an extraordinary capacity for hard work:  she raised 5 kids.  Early on she used a wringer washer and hung laundry outside.  She planted a large garden (and at one point had 2 gardens), canned fruits and vegetables, and raised chickens and turkeys.  She was thrifty: as someone who lived through the Depression of the 1930s, she saved water and stored lots of food.

Eva excelled as a cook and a baker and food played a big part in family life.  She could bake anything and enjoyed preparing meals for family gatherings.   She made cakes and pies, baked 6-9 loaves of bread every week, made and decorated wedding cakes and learned to bake angel food cake in a wood fired stove.  Her raised doughnuts were legendary as were her buns and cinnamon buns.  She kept 2 freezers full of food.  Dinner times were loud and happy times.  She cooked most everything from scratch, but was not averse to using convenience foods and loved shopping for new food items at the Piggly Wiggly across the border in Plentywood, Montana.

Eva was capable. She would tackle almost any job: tearing down a wall, upholster a couch (she took a course).  She was smart.  She worked as a teacher during the day and studied university courses at night, writing assignments out in long hand.  Every summer for years, she took summer classes at the University of Regina towards an Education degree.

She was fashionable. She liked to dress well and always had a new outfit, including a new hat, for Easter.  She enjoyed having her hair and nails done, and always wore a fresh colour of lipstick.

Eva valued education.  She wanted all of her children to study past grade 12.  She loved a good book and read as much as she could until her eyesight deteriorated at age 98.  She worked as teacher and principal in Viceroy, and as a counsellor for the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation.

After her retirement, Eva and John travelled widely, making trips to Europe and visiting Steve and Inez in Africa, India, Bangladesh and Jamaica.  Eva and John spent many enjoyable winter months in California with her niece, Mildred Heinzler.

Eva loved her husband John, her 5 children, 12 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.  She was witty, clever and resilient, and we miss her dearly.

A Service of Remembrance will be held on August 19, 1:30 pm at the Saskatoon Funeral Home, 338-4^th Avenue North, Saskatoon.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, www.heartandstroke.ca