Terry DaCosta Lybrand

October 1, 1930 - December 2, 2019

Marion Terry (nee) DaCosta - "Terry" to those close to her, passed away peacefully on Monday, December 2, 2019.   Mrs. Lybrand was predeceased by her parents, John Chalmers DaCosta IV and Norah (nee Hutchinson) DaCosta, a sister, Valentine (nee DaCosta) Schwenk, a niece, Elizabeth (nee Finney) Lawrence, and her beloved husband, John Evans Lybrand, who passed away 42 years ago.  Mrs. Lybrand is survived by their three children:  Angela Lybrand Hutton (Rob), Walter J. Lybrand (Joanne), and Stephen Lybrand (Dawn) and four grandchildren she adored.  Also surviving is a sister, Audrey (nee DaCosta) Finney, and two sisters-in-law, Lucille (nee Shaw) Richardson and Myrtle (nee Shaw) Jones and many nieces and nephews in Washington, Wales, Utah and Oklahoma.   Mrs. Lybrand was born in Philadelphia, baptized at Christ Church Philadelphia, and shortly thereafter her British mother and American father relocated to Haslemere, Surrey, England to live amongst an extensive English family. Within a few years, two sisters were born, and they became a family of five.   In July 1939, the family arrived in the Main Line area for a summer holiday with the American cousins; the youngest sister, a toddler, remained in Haslemere in the care of family. When the vacation concluded, the family boarded a ship on September 3rd for their return passage to England. As evening fell and the ship was preparing to set off across the Atlantic Ocean, news broke that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had declared war on Germany, and closed entry to all non-British citizens; while Germany vowed to sink all ships in the Atlantic that weren’t of German origin.  Her father's American passport was confiscated, and the family was told to disembark the ship.  With few options, and only suitcases in hand, the family returned to the American cousins and made a new home in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. It was several years before their family was whole again when the youngest sister, Valentine, arrived in America, via passage on a mercy ship that carried children away from war zones.   Ten years and a day after disembarking the ship in 1939, Mrs. Lybrand returned to England, and began training at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing, at Saint Thomas’ Hospital in London. After graduation, she returned to Pennsylvania aboard the Queen Mary (a graduation gift to herself) and began a nearly 40-year career at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, focused in the Premature, Intensive Care, and Transitional Care Nurseries. Mrs. Lybrand retired in 1994. During her nursing tenure, Mrs. Lybrand conducted a research study in the preliminary diagnosis of infant organ failure by using the specific gravity of urine.  Her work was published nationally, and she received both, credit and thanks, from several physicians and peers for her in-depth research. She loved nursing babies to health and preparing the parents, so they felt confident taking their babies home. She recruited family, friends and the Church sewing group to make doll-sized clothes for the premature infants, so parents had the joy of dressing their babies, as preemie-sized clothing wasn’t commercially available at the time.   Mrs. Lybrand was struck with wanderlust after nursing school traveling to Africa twice, the first time on a propeller plane to Ghana in the 1950’s on her “I am woman hear me roar tour” when she was resigned that a husband may not be in her future. (She was married within a year.) She returned to Africa again after she was widowed with a contingency of nurses studying and surveying women's health facilities. During this trip, she saw the wonders of the morning sunrise on the African plains in a hot air balloon ride – until a faulty burner sparked a little fire in the balloon -- but all landed safely just feet away from a lovely champagne brunch provided by the tour operator.  She was unphased. Years after she was invited to fly in a biplane which was one of the highlights of her life. Her biplane wing-walking aspirations (true story) remained unfulfilled though because the opportunity never presented itself. Just after retirement, Mrs. Lybrand traveled to the Galapagos Islands to see the wonders Charles Darwin wrote about. Mrs. Lybrand was always struck by the natural beauty of God’s creation and as a talented photographer, made many photo albums cataloging her adventures. Every summer, Mr. and Mrs. Lybrand would pile the children in the back of the car for a three-week vacation passing through Mr. Lybrand’s childhood home in Oklahoma and then onto the West Coast via a variety of routes. While the children didn’t necessarily see the merit in driving 6000 miles round trip, for a promised one-day jaunt to Frontier City and Disneyland, Mr. and Mrs. Lybrand knew that in time, they would grow to appreciate the other wonders they’d seen along the way, such as: floating in the Great Salt Lake in Utah and walking the Bonneville Salt Flats, driving through Death Valley in the middle of summer, hiking around the Grand Canyon, watching bats emerge at dusk from Carlsbad Caverns, poking around the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, hiking in Yellowstone and seeing Old Faithful erupt, walking through the Petrified Forest, standing on the banks of the Bay of Fundy as the Tidal Bore flowed in, traveling through the Salzburg Salt Mines in Austria, climbing the Swiss Alps, cruising on the Rhine River and much more.      Mrs. Lybrand was also passionate about gardening, her love of horticulture beginning by digging in the dirt of her English Granny’s garden. Later planting Victory Gardens during the war to grow fresh vegetables developed her joy of gardening into a life-long passion. She knew many plants by their Latin names and loved researching the genus of uncommon ones. She designed her gardens so that there was at least one specimen flowering and would supplement with plants she grew under grow-lights in her home.  Upon returning from a particularly long and inspiring trip abroad including a visit to the renowned Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, Mrs. Lybrand found her teenage children had diligently removed all the "weeds" (perennials) from her gardens to tidy up and surprise her.  She was surprised, and horrified, but she allowed her children to live, and it was a good thing because now each share her love of the garden.   Mrs. Lybrand was a gifted artist with paint, pastels and chalk; also, sculpture using mallet and chisel, clay, plaster and other mediums.  She could turn a mound of clay or a dried piece of driftwood it into something extraordinary.  She saved scraps of material, spools of yarn, decorative thread etcetera in case they were needed in another project. Mrs. Lybrand was also a talented embroideress taught by her mother who herself exhibited in America and abroad. Mrs. Lybrand embroidered beautiful pieces for All Saints’ including a kneeler and hangings to adorn the pulpit.   In retirement, Mrs. Lybrand fashioned herself a hooker of sorts, a rug-hooker that is, and joined Brandywine Hookcrafters for inspiration and company. She would draw a design with permanent marker on burlap, and as a “purist," would shred old wool clothes into strips and dye them herself to incorporate varied colors, patterns, and textures.  She was the only person we knew who was excited to find a boxful of old moth-eaten woolen skirts and an old white glazed bedpan she could use for dying. After many months of toiling, Mrs. Lybrand proudly presented her four-year-old grandchild the gift of her first finished rug “Peaceable Kingdom” to which the child replied, “elephants are my favorite and there are no elephants.” Undeterred, Mrs. Lybrand added her initials at the bottom of the piece with the “T” representing the head of an elephant and the “L” as a snake.  Mrs. Lybrand's "Peaceable Kingdom" was included in the magazine "Rug Hooking Celebration VI," the annual juried exhibit of hand-hooked rugs.   Mrs. Lybrand was a member of All Saints’ Church for 80 years, from grammar school until she entered the Eternal Kingdom. She was active in the Choir and Bible Study, as a Sunday School teacher, the Altar Guild, volunteered in the Church Office, with the Garden Gang, at the Thrift Shop and the Church Fair. One year she was honored as All Saints’ "Volunteer of the Year." Her faith was the foundation for her life which she generously shared with her children and grandchildren.   Mrs. Lybrand’s legacy is as a bright, beautiful remarkable woman, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, Godmother, friend, nurse, neighbor, child of God will live on, loving to all she encountered, pure in spirit, kind in word and deed, generous beyond measure, a hard worker, brave and unflappable, and tough as nails when necessary. She had a dry wit and a slightly irreverent sense of humor she exhibited up until the day she passed. Mrs. Lybrand was unwavering in her commitment to raising her 11, 13 and 16-year-old as she and her late husband dreamed and did so in earnest. She was the model of grace and a life well lived. Rest in peace dear mother, God’s good and faithful servant, your work here is done. We miss you and will keep you close in our hearts until we meet again. All our love, Angela, Walter and Stephen. In lieu of flowers, any interested in donating in Terry’s memory, may consider The Church Farm School “Angel Fund” at 1001 East Lincoln Highway, Exton, PA 19341, that provides toiletries and other necessities to students in need.