THE late Gilda Howard-Healy, a former columnist with The Southern Star, led a charmed life, which was directly proportional to how charming she was as a person.
Everyone who knew her, met her, or enjoyed reading her weekly fashion column, was lifted by her enthusiasm, and her joy de vivre.
Her ability to see the best in things, or indeed make the best of things, in life and in fashion, was described as a tonic, and this is borne out by the many expressions of condolence since her passing on Thursday, March 27th last.
One friend described Gilda as ‘a woman of grace, elegance, and kindness. She was a beautiful woman, always full of fun’, while another said that, ‘She was always so bright and positive.’ It was the writer Colette Sheridan who described Gilda as ‘a tonic with her good humour and enthusiasm for life.’
Her first cousin, Maeve O’Regan, said Gilda, who is a member of the well-known O’Meara family in Fermoy but lived in Glanmire, was always popular, as was her writing.
Mourners turned up in great numbers to give her a fitting funeral service.
She was in her 91st year when she passed away, was always writing, and took great interest in the world around her, she added.
‘She was a very entertaining writer,’ said Maeve, who also recalled that her cousin sang in the choir in Mayfield.
‘She was a daily mass goer and was very involved in the Church. She loved people, but she was also very interested in painting, and played tennis for Sundays Well.’
Gilda started life as a bank official in Dublin and, as the beloved wife of the late Timothy Howard and later, Jerry Healy, she lived and worked in Rhodesia, Jersey, London and finally Cork. As an NUJ member, Maeve said Gilda loved her work as a feature writer for The Southern Star.
‘She was very flamboyant, drove a sports car, and even wrote a memoir, but her main love, above all, was her family; her children and grandchildren. In that, and in everything’, Maeve said, ‘she was a very happy person.’
‘She was well-liked by all her readers. And she will be sadly missed by her family, her husband Jerry, and her children David and Susan.’
Former Southern Star editor, Con Downing said: ‘Gilda was undoubtedly a stylish woman and great fun socially. She looked forward to social events, such as the Punchestown race meeting, and for the style on Ladies’ Day.
‘For a quarter of a century,’ he added, ‘Gilda added a dash of style to the feature pages of The Southern Star.’
