MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — UPDATE: Maria Gibb had lost her mother's memorial bench during Hurricane Milton, but thankfully it was found and the community came together to pull it out of the water from under the Albee Road Bridge. 

 

ORIGINAL STORY: As many people in Florida are focused on recovery and rebuild after damage from the recent storms, one resident is facing a different kind of recovery.

What You Need To Know

  • As many people in Florida are focused on recovery and rebuild after damage from the recent storms, one resident is facing a different kind of recovery
  • Maria Gibbs lost her mother's memorial bench from Hurricane Milton
  • It was while the area was feeling the effects of Hurricane Ian that Gibbs says her mother, Sheila, drowned

Venice resident Maria Gibbs visited her mother’s memorial bench in Nokomis near the beach almost every week.

“As soon as we crossed that bridge we had to walk over, I knew it was gone,” she said.

Gibbs thought her mother’s memorial bench would always be there, overlooking the water.

“This is the place my mom used to take us when we were little. This was her favorite beach. She’d give you the shirt off her back. She loved people, she loved animals,” she explained.

Gibbs says losing the memorial feels like losing her mother all over again. While the bench survived Hurricane Helene, it was washed away by Hurricane Milton.

“She loved it out here, but her bench is gone,” she said.

It was while the area was feeling the effects of Hurricane Ian that Gibbs says her mother, Sheila, drowned. Sheila was traveling home from the nursing home where she worked, less than a half mile from her house.

“She was released to go home in the middle of a flash flood. The current was so strong she got pulled into that canal. They didn’t find her for two days. She was trying to escape, but couldn’t,” Gibbs said.

Since then, Gibbs has taken up her mother’s hobby, gardening. She just picked up some plumeria trees to plant.

“I usually kill plants, but mine are thriving. I can only attribute that to my mom being with me because this is what she did, this is what she loved,” she said.

Gibbs visited the bench almost every week. When it was there, a plaque read:

“Our mom found peace in nature here at the beach, so grab your fishing pole, turn on some oldies, come sit and enjoy the sunset for a moment with her.”

“There were times I had to park and wait to come sit here because other people were sitting here fishing and enjoying it, said Gibbs.

Gibbs said Sarasota County has been in touch with her family and is working to install a new memorial bench for her mother. In the meantime, she hopes to find the original bench so she can send pieces of it to family members as keepsakes.