THERE’S not much Georgie Gibbs can’t do – she rides horses up to three times a week, sings in a choir, is a member of a French speaking group, and plays tennis. And she’s about to turn 90.
While the Balnarring woman is showing no signs of slowing down, she is quick to concede, “I’m very lucky to be as healthy as I am”. Just last week she spent a morning equestrian riding at Merricks Saddle Club before a few hours later joining a choir at Flinders Probus Club to sing Christmas carols. “I do indeed [love it],” she said.
Born in England on 29 December 1934, Gibbs came to Australia as a “10-pound pom” in 1952 with her mother and sister where they were reunited with her father and brother. “During the war we moved all over the place because my father was in the Navy and he moved from port to port because he was on convoy escort,” she explained. Gibbs initially lived in Perth doing a variety of odd jobs including working in a tomato garden, and apple picking and packing.
But she and her sister eventually decided “we’d better have a career” so they tossed a coin “as to whether to be air hostesses or nurses and it came up heads with nurses”. “So, we went nursing and we trained at Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth”. She married her husband in Perth before they lived in Fiji for five years for her husband’s work before arriving in Melbourne in 1969. Gibbs returned to nursing, with a large part of her career based at Box Hill Hospital.
The couple moved to Merricks North in 1982 where she took up horse riding again – a passion she found during her youth. Her husband sadly passed away four years ago. Today, Gibbs, who is a mother of two children and two grandchildren, said she liked to keep her mind active, saying “I just like doing things”. This included gardening and growing her own vegetables, riding (with two lessons twice a week) and volunteering as a carriage driving instructor for the Riding for the Disabled Association in Mornington and singing in a choir once a week. She also has a pet Kelpie who she walks up to two times a day and is a member of a French speaking group.
“I’m quite occupied which is good,” she said, laughing that she was not one to sit down. “I keep going as much as I can … I did have quite a big heart attack back in 2015, and that was the reason why we downsized to this smaller place in Balnarring. But luckily, I was able to have four stents put in and I’ve been healthy ever since. “I’m very fortunate to have such lovely friends that help me a lot with my riding, and I’ve got other friends who cart the old horse around when the friend who owns him can’t do it, so I’m lucky in that regard.”
As far as birthday bash goes, Gibbs celebrated the milestone with family at Venus Bay during a “lovely” weekend. While she said any plans for her big day on the 29 December would be “quite quiet”, one can only imagine this would involve any number of activities.
First published in the Mornington News – 17 December 2024
