From the moment I lost my grandmother Muriel Carpenter Gibson in 1985, Iona took on the role of both my great-aunt and my second grandmother. Her home was open to me for the next three decades, a warm place of love and laughter. Because of her recollections of needle-like precision, her precious family stories and photographs, and the skeletal family tree that she shared with me, I have since taken my own journey through time spanning more than four centuries of vast history and a rich heritage of which I am immensely proud and humbled. I will forever treasure the late-night chats we had at her kitchen table during my visits, right up to the last phone conversation we had following her 94th birthday this past July. I will deeply miss our talks about Clark Gable and Jean Harlow films, about our ancestry, and so many other things that we shared between us. There is a very large hole in my heart that her passing has left behind. I take great comfort in the knowledge that her sisters Muriel, Thelma, and Winona, her brothers Clyde, Vernon and Lyle, and her beloved husband Albert were all present to greet her when she left us, now free of the earthly bonds of age and discomfort. I will always be grateful for having her in my life she was, and will continue to be, a true example of what familial love is. I send heartfelt condolences and healing thoughts to her family, especially to my cousin Gary during this difficult time. I will carry her in my heart for the rest of my days.
