Brigid’s tribute to her sister Libby

Monday the gang arrived back from England from the funeral and celebration of her sister Libby’s life. Brigid brought back from England … a bad cold!  Here is what Brigid said at the church before the funeral Mass, speaking before Libby’s son Tom.  I have posted about Libby here – Sad News: Libby Dent Conyers

BRIGID –

I have been asking myself this question – “What made Libby the person she was to become?”

The answer I think started in her childhood with Libby’s enthusiastic love of her family and her faith and her friends.

She was born on D-Day plus 1 in Darjeeling India during a thunderstorm. Our mother was Frances Neville from Goleen, County Cork, Ireland, a talented home economics teacher. Our father, Thomas Dent, a forester steeped in nature, from Grantham Leicestershire. When she was born, she had an older brother Neville and a sister Kate.

Life in India was exciting. By the time Libby was three she could understand and speak Hindi and Bengali. Amongst other cool things, they looked after orphaned animals, including a baby elephant named Bigli.  In 1947 the family came home on leave but were never to return to India again.

They stayed in Goleen Co. Cork with our grandparents Thomas and Mary Neville, with whom Libby formed a close bond. These were happy childhood times with family and friends coming and going and it was there that I was born. So Libby had a little sister to look after, and she always did a great job.

Libby was about ten when we moved to York. Dad had chosen a beautiful house, Meadowside, which became the Dent home for 60 years. Often Dad would find Libby asleep with a book still in hand and the light on.

A funny little story.  … I knew that Kate would be allowed to attend a party so I turned to Libby and said “so it’s just my pal and me” not knowing that Libby was told she could go but I would be staying home. After I said that, she decided to stay home with me.

When Libby was about 12 she joined Kate at Poles, the convent boarding school in Hertfordshire.  The school motto was “Do not despair, Christ is your guide.” It was a beautiful school with a walled garden that Libby felt at home in and enjoyed helping Mother Marie tend. The clematis still growing on her house came from Poles.

At Poles Libby’s faith deepened. She loved all the beautiful hymns sung at Mass and truly admired the nuns who had given their lives to Christ and our education.

On St. Patrick’s Day you would see Libby playing field hockey in the annual England v. Ireland game. We always played for Ireland. At Poles Libby made lifelong friends – Susie Mahon and Pat Joyce, among others. Her class had the reputation for being the most mischievous and Libby always had a twinkle in her eye.

Libby seriously considered becoming a nun but luckily for Michael, Rachel, Tom, Richard, Lizzie, Ava, Charlotte, Jude, and Finn she chose a different and wonderful path.

Libby would want us to know – to quote one of her favorite authors Louisa May Alcott – an American – that she “had kept good company, read good books, loved good things, and cultivated soul and body as faithfully and wisely as she could.”

Tom, my husband said – “We all adored and admired Libby. And now my beautiful sister-in-law is in touch with the universe.”