It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of our much-loved mother Audrey Joyce Evans. Audrey to some, Joyce to others, and a true lady to everyone.
Joyce passed away peacefully on August 12, 2020 at North York General Hospital. Although she was coming up to her 98th birthday her death was unexpected, the consequence of a fall at home. She was hoping to live to 100 to receive a birthday card from the Queen. Like the Queen she was quiet, thoughtful, respectful and well spoken. In her younger years she even resembled the Queen.
Her life was an interesting one given the times and events she experienced in her almost 98 years.
Born in England to a Scottish mother and an English father she grew up in Leeds outside of London along with her three sisters and a brother. By her teenage years it was wartime and with all the men fighting the war the women were left doing the work back home - some things never change. She was working in the war efforts when she met her husband to be who was a returned prisoner of war. After the war, the couple left their England behind and immigrated to Canada, the land of opportunity.
They sailed to Canada on the RMS Aquitania in August 1948 and arrived at Pier 21 in Nova Scotia before boarding a train to the unknown city of Toronto, an arduous journey one could hardly imagine today. She married her husband on October 16, 1948 at St. Mark's Church, Parkdale.
They settled in Toronto where she lived most of her life and went on to have five daughters and one granddaughter. To entertain five children through the summer, they bought a cottage on Buckhorn Lake in 1967 and went on to love cottage life spending most weekends and entire summers at the lake. She was an exceptional weed and leaf raker – a task she was not able to ever give away despite her age. She was dangerous at a bonfire always adding wood and poking the fire and loved playing card games and doing jigsaw puzzles with friends and family. Her life involved raising her five daughters, being a homemaker, an avid reader including keeping current on world affairs, doing crosswords, attending theatre, and later in life travelling the world with her daughters.
Her favourite things were chocolates and desserts, a good cup of Red Rose tea, flower gardens, and watching a good soap opera (Another World and General Hospital).
She lost her husband to a heart attack in 1974 and overnight became a single mom and the director of a construction company and property development consortium. She quickly learned business skills and with the help of an outstanding accountant and a good friend, she emerged from the experience financially sound. She proudly obtained her Canadian Citizenship in 2000.
She outlived her husband Thomas, her three sisters and brother and sadly two of her own daughters, Pauline and Christine. Only three daughters Jacqueline, Heather, Toni and her much loved grandchild, Jennifer are alive to celebrate her life and appreciate all that she experienced over close to a century of living.
The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to all her caregivers who supported her ability to continue to live in her home and especially to Jane and her sister Ruth, who become members of our family.
Although we are grief-stricken, we know we were lucky to have her with us for as long as we did. Joyce will be forever missed, and our hearts will always be full of her memories. May she rest in peace; she touched so many and we were blessed to have had such a loving mother, elegant lady and kind soul in our lives.
Given Covid-19, the family will hold a small private ceremony. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Alzheimer Society of Canada or North York General Hospital would be appreciated by the family.