Sally Fitzgibbons in Stab

A Few Hours of Sunlight – from Stab issue 53.

Words by Derek Rielly, video by Riley Blakeway.

If this magazine is made to put you in a summer mood, then Sally Fitzgibbons is the gold ribbon that ties this tender and charming title together.

Let me tell you something about lil Ms Fitz. She’s not just a real close runner-up to the world title this year (taken by the heartkeeping Ms Moore, incidentally), but she is just about the most wonderful gal Stab has ever met (and we’ve met some cuter-than-heaven gals – Loz Enever, Mon Wickey, to name just two of ‘em).

What makes her one of those without shadows? Sally writes texts that… smile, for one. “Love to have a chat and create a page of breezy words! Ha!” she writes in one exchange I’ve kept forever in my Apple telephone.

In person, she’s inclusive, open, deserving, sweet and a little vulnerable. Sal plays chess, she was the dux of her school, she was a gold medal-winning youth Olympian, she eats fruit while the rest of the drones eat candy, she’s never been roaring drunk (or even slightly drunk) and her healthy, strong body reflects this.

At the photo shoot at a city beach, there was an odour of thrill in the air. I reached the excitement and peered through an opening in the stylist, hair gal, two assistants, mum, team manger pack to see a bright-eyed thing at the height of her beauty.

Sally Fitzgibbons, creamy, comic and cute as always. Sally makes you feel carefree. – Derek Rielly

Check out the rest of issue 53, here.