Nancy Jo Gibson of Waynesboro lives in the house in which she grew up.
She and her husband, David, are Stuarts Draft High School graduates who homeschooled their three children, David Lee, Joseph and Rebekah.
In late January 2009, the family’s lives were irrevocably changed and their faith tested. Rebekah Jane Gibson was murdered by her boyfriend in Buckhannon, West Virginia.
Nancy Jo Gibson’s first book, “Safe in Your Arms,” shares her journey in the aftermath of her daughter’s death.
After two sons, the Gibsons did not expect to have a girl in 1988, so they were thrilled by the surprise.
“She loved animals. Rebekah loved animals.”
The family always had cats and Rebekah enjoyed horseback riding. Gibson said two day-old kittens found by their house when Rebekah was a child became members of the family. Rebekah and her mother also bottle-fed a baby squirrel who had fallen out of a tree before they were able to take it to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
“She loved all kinds of animals. And her brothers loved her very, very much.”
Rebekah had curly blonde hair as a child, loved to wear hats and always enjoyed being feminine.
“She was excellent at playing the piano.”
Gibson said that her daughter was feisty, and was not happy when someone spelled her first name wrong. “She wasn’t happy about that.”
Rebekah loved to swim and loved watching movies. Gibson and her daughter spent much of their time together watching movies.
“That was one of the things we did together a lot, she and I,” Gibson said.
Rebekah loved riding her bicycle as a child and adored Gibson’s father, who was a Vietnam War veteran.
“He was very, very important to Rebekah and had such an impact on her. And so did David’s mom.”
Gibson said that the loss of Rebekah’s grandfather and then also her beloved grandmother in 2004 probably started her daughter on a path toward rebellion her senior year of high school. When she died, Gibson said she thinks Rebekah was about to start to turn her life around and had plans to return to Waynesboro.
Rebekah journalled her childhood and included threats in some entries for her brothers in case they read her journals.
An avid reader, Rebekah also enjoyed music.
Rebekah loved snow.
“It never snows that I don’t think of her. She loved snowmen.”
Gibson, who earned a degree in early education at JMU, taught preschool at Bethany Lutheran Church in Waynesboro.
In her book, she shares her grief as a parent and the guilt she felt because, as a strict parent then, she feels she was not there for her child.
“I didn’t have compassion for her pain. I didn’t even recognize.”
Gibson said all she saw was her daughter’s behavior, she did not inquire about the pain Rebekah was feeling.
“When she did struggle, she didn’t have a safe place to go [with her pain].”
Gibson said writing the book helped her to heal from her guilt and sense of regret, and to forgive Rebekah’s murderer.
“God’s worked in me and changed me and that’s a good thing,” she said of her grief journey.
Gibson led grief share classes at Church on the Hill in Fishersville for several years. She hopes her book is able to encourage parents who have lost children on their grief journey.
“The thing is, grief is grief. The grief over my daddy is different than my grief over Rebekah, yet they overlap. So even though I lost a daughter and she was murdered, somebody who’s lost a daddy or spouse, they could still maybe glean some things about the grief journey. Because grief is grief.”
With plans to move back to Waynesboro, Rebekah returned to Buckhannon in late January 2009 to retrieve her belongings when she was killed.
Joseph Gibson wrote an introduction and conclusion to “Safe in Your Arms” that is “brief, but very powerful” about the day the family learned Rebekah was gone.
Gibson said that Rebekah had not yet found the career she would devote her life to, but Gibson thinks she would have done something with animals.
Rebekah Jane Gibson was 20 years old. She would have been 36 this April.
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Rebecca Barnabi
