MAGDA LASZKIEWICZ, GAZETTE / Isabella Gibson ready to celebrate her 99th.

It's all nines for Isabella Gibson.

Today, on the ninth day of the ninth month of 1999, Gibson is celebrating her 99th birthday.

And she'll be dressed to the nines, with a long string of pearls and matching earrings.

Asked for the secret of her longevity, Gibson, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, replied: "I don't know. It comes and goes. And it's been coming and going for so long - I don't find it funny."

Surrounded by three of her children in the lobby of Edmond Laurendeau Residence in north-end Montreal, where she's lived since 1992, Gibson disclosed that certain activities, including gambling, smoking, dancing and the occasional glass of wine, are what have kept her on her toes all these years.

"I like parties because I have fun," said Gibson, who used to waltz until weakened by osteoporosis.

Gambling, however, remains her passion. Last year, for her 98th birthday, her family took her to the Montreal Casino.

"I would gamble more if I got the chance," said Gibson, who enjoys playing bingo. "It keeps us going."

Funnily, the number nine isn't her lucky number.

"It's eight," she said with a wink.

Gibson said she has quit smoking. But then she admitted to sneaking one or two in the lobby. "I smoke when my son gives me one," she said. "It feels good."

Although not quite sure of the significance of all those nines popping up all at once, Gibson recalled that for her 100th birthday her doctor has promised to show up with a bottle of champagne.

Gibson came to Canada with her mother on the liner Lusitania, which sank on its return trip off the coast of Ireland in 1915. Her father, a bookbinder, had immigrated a few months earlier.

Today, the family - which includes three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren - will be holding a luncheon party. "We wanted it to be a surprise," said Huguette Strother, Gibson's daughter-in-law. "But I can see that's not possible."

A few years ago, the family took Gibson to a male strip club on Ste. Catherine St.

"Oh, it was terrible. I remember that all right," Gibson said.

"Yes, but she was looking at the dancers through her fingers," piped up Norma Strother, the eldest of Gibson's five children.