Remembering Joyce

I don't recall the very first time I met Al and Joyce. I would guess that it was at Dad and Linda's wedding in August of 1990. I had only been dating Mike for a very short time so I'm sure I had very little to say to them when we were introduced. I was a pretty quiet girl back then and Dad has mentioned on more than one occasion that it would be nice if I went back to those days. I like to think he's kidding. We do that a lot in this family, teasing, kidding, poking fun. Joyce was no less of a target than any of us. She would always be the first to join in the laughter. Whenever we all gathered together you could guarantee that there would be some story to be told. Some stories were good enough that they would be repeated and we would all laugh like it was the first time we'd heard it. Some of those we heard again today put together so beautifully and spoken so eloquently by Linda's Uncle Ken. His rememberance of Joyce was far superior to what I'm trying to relay here, somewhat disjointedly.

I've turned this post over and over in my head for the better part of a week trying to capture what Joyce was to me. It's important to me that I honour her for two reasons, the first being she meant so much not just to me, but the rest of this family I have been so blessed to become a part of. Secondly for Abby. Mike asked me tonight if I thought Abby would remember Joyce. On her own, no she probably wouldn't. Right now, though, she knows who Joyce is. She can pick her out of a picture. So the duty falls to us to keep her alive for Abby. To teach her all the things we loved about Joyce, what made her special.

One of the things that made her so special to me is, she loved my daughter. I mean truly deeply loved Abby. She was just thrilled every opportunity she got to spend with her. Until Abby arrived Joyce was always just Joyce. Once Abby began talking she christened her Papa Joyce, for reasons known only to Abby, and that's what stuck. Soon we were all calling her Papa Joyce. I think she loved that Abby had come up with a special name just for her. She was the only Grandma out of 5 that Abby called Papa.

It was easy to see how proud Joyce was of her family. She was never short of a compliment about any of us. She would always let you know how happy she was to see you. Sometimes when I'd talk to her she'd call me sweetie and that made me feel important because I knew that's what she called Linda. She was always generous with the hugs and if it was a hug goodbye she would often tell me she loved me.

Joyce had a spark and energy that truly was remarkable. She was the only Grandma I had ever met that was that physically active. I couldn't claim to be half as active right now as Joyce was in years past. She loved to golf and scored not one, but two holes in one in her lifetime. While Joyce was overly generous with praise for others she wasn't the type that tooted her own horn. As we heard today she accomplished many things in her lifetime, but we didn't hear much about that from her. We did hear things like Linda was a fabulous cook, Garry was a great writer, Abby was beautiful.

Both the visitation last night and the service today were full of people who's life Joyce had touched. Either directly or indirectly through her family. It was an amazing testament to an amazing woman. The service today was beautiful, just as she deserved. Papa Joyce, we love you and will miss you.