Hi Paul & Lorraine:  We are Jim & Marion Lindsay from Orangeville.  Nancy Gillis gave us the information about the Memorial for your mother, Joyce.  We wish to extend our sincere sympathy to all the family.
We would like to attend the event next Saturday, July 13, at your farm.  Marion is a cousin from the Edy and McLean families.  We will bring some family history with us.
Marion & Joyce played together as little girls at the "Black Family Picnics" in the 1940"s
Looking forward to seeing you.   

But I'll give it a shot!

Joyce became one of my four BFF's in the late 1960's when we bought a hundred acres adjoining Braehaddon, on the 5th Line East, in Caledon. 
The first time I laid eyes on Joyce, she was plowing up the front forty, in a pair of short shorts, brown work boots and gray socks with red tops. The farmer kind.
I, on the other hand,  city lady that I was, had on a fashionable sun-dress and stunning wide-brimmed straw hat. We were also driving a nifty XKE Jaguar.
I had my doubts that we would have much in common - but how WRONG I was. 

Just about the first priority, as we started a huge reno on OUR farm, was the 3300' grass runway along the bush line at the back of both properties.
And taxi-ways to the back doors. . . . 

One of the first "must-haves" at our place, Brachenmoor, was a long paved driveway from the 5th line to the house. AND! as long as we had the paving machine full of tar, said Peter, "Why not drop a tennis court at Braehaddon"? Done. 

About the same time, Jamie tamed a crow, and named him Charlie. Charlie liked hot dogs; a LOT. When he didn't get them at his place he'd fly over to ours.
On more than one occassion, I startled weekend guests at Sunday brunch, by excusing myself from the table, going to the fridge, and returning with a weiner, which I flung out the sliding glass door, to Charlie, who caught it in mid-flight.
We found out,  a lot later, that he stashed all of them in the hollow metal posts that held up the net on the tennis court.

Pretty much top on my list of reno's, was a new kitchen. Everything top o' the line, including a garbage disposal. I mentioned this to Joyce, who scoffed and said she'd rather have a PIG!  Several week later, while dining at the Irwin's, I helped with the clearing of dinner plates, and went to the under-the-counter pull-out bin, where I knew the garbage can to be. Joyce stopped me and said "No, just toss it under the sink"! I opened the door, and there was HER new garbage disposal.
A tiny pink piglet which she'd named "Sammy". (from then on ALL disposals were called "Sammy in the Sink!") Joyce named EVERYTHING!
The ice-maker she installed on Canowie was called "Decadent"

The Irwin's had their German Shepherd "Willie" we had our fawn Great Dane Bismarck, and along with the crow and the pig, we had quite the circus.
They travelled the path between the two farms on a regular basis. 

Joyce called is a bit of a panic one day, to ask our help in dis-lodging Sammy, who was now full grown, from the window well to their basement.
He was one "stuck pig"  - backwards. Head, shoulders and front hooves clinging to the cement, butt protruding into the basemen. Joyce had tried to extricate him by tying a rope around his chest and shoulders and pulling. I think she even attached it to the Cub Cadet, with no success.
Bill Koyle went down to the basement to assess the sitution, and after not too much thought, called to us to "man the rope" and prepare to get out of the way.
He then took a two by four, and whacked the pig in the balls, and sure enough! that got him outta the well!

We had lots of memorable dinner parties at both farms. . . .
I'll regale you with two.
In the midst of the rubble, with my renovation in progress, I decided to have an intimate little seven course, black-tie New Year's celebration. Just the four of us.
It was snowing like hell, all over Ontario. Peter was about to be grounded (in his beloved Viscount) in Sudbury. He made a Captains' decision, and told the crew he had a date for dinner and they were going NOW!
At seven o'clock, Peter and Joyce arrived via the runway, on a skidoo. Joyce in a long gown, and Peter in black tie and his MacLaren kilt. (under their ski-doo suits) Dinner and drinks (lots of those) were served as formally as I could manage, considering the stripped off lathe and plaster everywhere, in front of a roaring fire in the living room.

New Year's day dawned bright and sunny, and as we went to attend the horses and cows in the barn, we noticed the "path of departure" taken by the captain.
The ski-doo tracks in the fresh snow went from the mud room door, OVER a pile of old reclaimed bricks (for the exterior of our farm) and up the taxiway . . . . .
Ho, Ho, Ho!


Now remember . . . . I mentioned we had the driveway PAVED.
Not long after that was done, The Squire of Brachenmoor bought himself a bright yellow road grader, at a farm auction, which we named "Rosie".
After another  winter "dinner for four" with Peter and Joyce and lots of libation, we thought it might be fun to take "Rosie" for a spin up the 5th line and drop in on our  neighbors, Jack and Pat Halls. Drinks in hand, and the Squire at the throttle, off we went in the middle of the night! Not to worry, there were never any cops around our place at that time. We hung a right into the Halls' driveway, and halfway to the house, discovered a car, engine still running, steam coming from the rad,  wrapped around a tree, with NO driver! There were, however, definite tracks in the snow, heading through the bush. Jack called the OPP and NOW we had cops on the road. Lots of them.
We ditched the wine glasse, and managed to convince them that a yellow road grader in the middle of a snowy winter's eve, was our preferred method of transport, neighbour to neighbour. I can't remember if or where the driver of the car was found. As they say, "God protects drunks and babies"

There were the annual springtime challenges between the Koyle's ancient Land Rover, the Irwin's Army-issue red Jeep, and the Hansford's kahki Ack-Ack.
The object of the exercise was to see who would be the last to be mired down in the 500 acre Conservation Authority across the road.
I think the winner was always . . . Howard  & Mary Hansford in the Ack Ack.

I have many many more great memories of Joyce. I've been "dining out" on her stories for 40 years. . . . I wish we'd never left the 5h line!


I'll end with a personal note to a favourite lady . . .  
(whose favourite colors were RED & ORANGE!)

Joyce!
Give a kiss and a hug to Luke and Helen, and I'll see you soon?
xoxoxoxox      Arlene
 

So sorry to hear the news Joyce is not doing so well, I was just thinking of you all today when I was taking a look at a yellow J3 Cub.

Tough times buddy, my thoughts are with you all...

As you know I have always thought of Peter & Joyce as my Canadian parents & yourself a brother, we shared some special times out in that Pacific all those years ago.

It was awesome to catch up with yourself, Nicola & the boys last year & see Peter & Joyce, share some time together & special memories of our South Pacific adventures!

I will always be indebted to you guys for everything you have shared with "the kiwi", taking me in as one of the family, my life would never have taken the course it did & ending up involved in the marine industry without those adventures, experiences & memories on Canowie

Please give the Big Guy & Joyce a hug from me & let them know I'm thinking of them & we send our love.

Take care buddy & keep in touch...

Brett 

Sam wrote: "Anyone who ever was touched by Joyce...and she touched many lives....will never ever forget her. And the memories always bring a smile. Now that is a legacy that is hard to beat...but then..they broke the mold when Joyce was born. She has always been one of my favourtie people. My love to everyone and hugs to you all again. And a special hug to Joyce...my other mom."

There are no words to express our expressions of sympathy to all of you.I am glad it is over for her but can only imagine the deep sense of loss you are all feeling.We had a great love for her & always enjoyed her company so we too are feeling an emptiness & saddness that she has gone from our lives.
 
Our thoughts & love are with all of you,
 
Doc & Nancy

My heart is more than heavy today, for you all. Joyce was such a "best
friend" and I'll miss her a lot.
Thankfully, I have nothing but the fondest, happiest memories of your
mother and we all had more than a few laughs at Braehaddon &
Brachenmoor. To be treasured for sure . . . .
Fondest love to you both,
Arlene

We were so sorry to hear that Joyce had passed away, what a tragic loss for the family and all her many friends. I was just saying to Margot this morning how I always remember Joyce driving the Zodiac flat out, sun glasses in her hair, rum in hand and laughing wildly. She had great spirit, no doubt. She will be missed by us all.

Our memories of the wonderful times we both had with Pete and Joyce all those years ago, are both vivid ( despite the passage of time ) and very dear to us. We do go back a long way, to Jamaica, Braehaddon, Canowie, Palau and many others. What wonderful times we all had, sitting on the back deck of Canowie in Koror harbour with a sticky green in hand!

Both Margot and I would love to keep in touch again and hear the news of you and your family ?  through the wonders of the internet, now that we have made contact again. A great deal of water under the bridge!

Our warmest regards

Chris and Margot

I spoke with Katie just after she was talking with you earlier this week so she was able to pass on the news about Aunt’ Joyce’s passing. It didn’t come as a shock but it still was sad news. So much of my youth was spent at the farms inCaledonthat Joyce was as much an older sister as an aunt. Her unfailing cheerfulness would boost whatever mood I was in and I always looked forward to spending time with all of you. I know that you are planning some sort of memorial for her in the spring/summer and I’d be happy to help in any way.

My prayers are with you.

Andy

Andrew Schell

You must be feeling bereft, as I do, and no doubt, so must hundreds of others as well, whose lives she has touched in her own special way.  I, for one, feel privileged to have known her and somehow to have felt close to her, from however far away, in a way I can't define, for the best part of half a century. 

Perhaps I felt that I knew it might be coming sometime soon.  I don't know why but I've been thinking of you (and I do that a lot) more than ever recently.  For weeks, maybe months now, I have been meaning to, and saying to Rachel that I must, phone Peter this week-end without fail.  Somehow, and there are no decent excuses, the tomorrows have rolled on, and all along I've quietly been dreading that it would one day come to Peter being the one to phone me instead, and that he'd be giving me this sad news.  And that's just what's happened.  

Perhaps it was knowing that the news was never going to be good that was part of my hesitancy; that maybe my fumbling offering of concern would, in some way, be an intrusion into that precious world of coping and caring that Peter had so lovingly and so courageously built for Joyce.  That world and the support of her boys must, over the last difficult years, have been the best comfort she could have had. 

It was never fair.  Why Joyce?  How could anyone so supremely capable be reduced to any degree of incapacity?  Worst of all, incapacity of thought.  Why, with a mind as quick as a whip and a laugh so infectious it would make your eyes water, why should it be Joyce who was in any way less able to respond to or outwit all around her?  She deserved it less than anyone in the world.

I'd maybe wondered, looking back on it, but I don't think I'd noticed anything different during the year we were in BC.  I sadly did see a change, though, when we came for that wonderful holiday in the Philippines.  She'd lost some of the old twinkle, still had some good giggles but, disappointingly, she was definitely less inclined to give me total shit than she used to.  I always valued and always enjoyed, being given just that by Joyce.  It was never not what I fully deserved and I loved her all the more for it. 

Who would believe, but come June, it will be 44 years since she took me under her wing and first started giving me shit.  There I was, a mere sapling of a lad, about as useless at doing anything remotely useful as a fish in mud and she'd roll her eyes and laugh at my utter incompetence.  She'd crack up at the froth and bollocks of my Englishness, never maliciously, but so that you could laugh with her too, and then be able to laugh at yourself.  However much of a knuckle-headed fuddler I was, she'd try to instill in me that if something needed fixing, you didn't wait around 'til a phantom fixer showed up from somewhere over the rainbow, you damned well fixed the cussed thing yourself.  And if you didn't, you got an earful.  And got laughed at.  Oh so gently! 

This was a lady who could do more on her own, and think nothing of it, than any other man or woman any of us have ever known.  She'd nonchalantly prepare a sumptuous feast for a score of people all by herself, "tum-ti-dum", never phased, never flustered, and all after having dug a huge patch for the cabbages and onions, mended a gate, dressed a dog's wound, unblocked a drain, shelled a tub-load of peas, done the school run and single-handedly shifted three cords of builders planks; still administering shit to any nearby waster!  I was simply amazed, and always have been, at her endless energy and her vast ability.  There was nothing that she wouldn't have a go at.  I'm sure that her influence then had much to do with me, at a stage when I was pretty directionless, making some, however slow, progress towards getting off my arse and trying to do something with my life. 

Time slips by all too fast but it would be fair to say that in all the years since then, there haven't been many weeks, if not days, when I haven't spent some moments thinking about those fun days in Caledon East with some considerable degree of fondness and deep affection for a very special lady who has meant a huge amount to me ever since.  I'm going to miss her dreadfully but in a way, the missing has already been done and it is better to feel now that, somehow, she'll always be there and be there at her best.  I can't bear to remember her any other way.  For me, she was always at her best. 

I think you all know that I loved her very much.

Please keep me posted on plans and dates for the memorials.  It's probably more likely that we would come to the one in BC but it would be good to know the timing on arrangements for Ontario, just in case.  I didn't have a recent e-mail for Jamie other than the one for SunX that might not work now.  If I could be updated on that, I'll add it to my VIP list.

My thoughts and love to you all as ever,

And have a Happy Christmas if you can,

    Bob.