H. Joyce Vuyk

Joyce was born April 4, 1933 to John Claudius Bates and Helen Soren in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was blessed in her life to have her grandmother Mae Bates who cared for her and her brother through their formative years. She was formally adopted by her mother Juanita Moorehead Bates later in life.

A great reunion was held when Joyce moved on to the next life July 1, 2020 and joined her Eternal Companion Thomas Pouwel Vuyk. Joyce and Tom were married on September 16, 1953 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple for time and all eternity. Their life together was an amazing love story. We know that she is grateful to be with her Tom again.

She and Tom were the parents of six children; Joyce was always grateful to have had the opportunity to be a wife and mother. She was a great mom and a blessing to her children. Joyce loved her children and was an amazing mother; she taught them to be good, kind and caring people. She also wanted to make sure that they respected others and she taught them to use good manners and treat everyone with respect and kindness. She worked hard to support her children in their schooling and activities and volunteered many times to be PTA President in their schools.

Because of her work with the school system and watching the interaction of the students and their teachers she was inspired to write and illustrate a book about manners and caring. Her book, “How Christopher Learned to Glow” was published by Deseret Book and sold many copies. The greatest blessing of this amazing book is that her posterity learned about the things she was so passionate about. All her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were blessed to have this sweet book and to learn about caring and kindness from Molly and Christopher. They can all tell you about being a “Glow Kid”.

Joyce was recruited to be on the State of Utah PTA Board and during her time on the PTA Board she shared some additional stories of Christopher, she was able to have “How Christopher Learned to Love America” distributed as a filmstrip to schools across the state. As part of her duties she was also tasked with putting together the “Reflections Program”; she was involved in encouraging students to share their talents in music, art, and writing. She loved this program and was always impressed by the wonderful entries and the great kids that were willing to share their talents.

She was a great blessing to her grandchildren. They have many fond memories of the time they spent with grandma and grandpa over the years. Camping trips, sleepovers, holidays, they all loved grandma Vuyk and recognized the blessing she was in their lives.

Joyce was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she was able to serve in many callings. She served in Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary. She was an amazing support to Tom who was called to serve as a bishop in the Ivins Ward, Wells Stake when he was only 28 years old and again when they moved to the Brickyard Ward after they had retired. She was very involved with the youth during the time they served together in the Ivins Ward and was tasked to write, and direct multiple road shows and ward and stake plays and events. She loved being a Den Mother and had many fond memories of the young boys she was able to teach. She always served no matter the calling with a smile on her face and a willingness to do her best. She was a great example of love and service to all who knew her.

Joyce was an amazing woman with many talents and the desire to serve her family and others. She loved singing and theater, she had a beautiful Alto singing voice and whenever she had the opportunity to sing in church, in the community or with her family it brought her a great deal of joy.

She took great pride in having beautiful penmanship. She learned to write and love calligraphy and was able to teach a class at Salt Lake Business College. Joyce was an amazing seamstress and was able to sew beautiful clothing for herself and her family through the years.

When two of her sons were called to serve missions; Joyce ventured back into the workforce working as a Secretary for General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was also involved in the Boundary Change Committee; she worked for ten years at the church. She loved her time there and was grateful every day that she had the opportunity to rub shoulders with amazing, kind and loving people.

Joyce was a wonderful woman who gave so much of herself to others. She was a loving daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, grandma great, sister and friend. She will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

She is preceded in death by her Parents, her Sweetheart Thomas P. Vuyk, and her brother Donald Bates. She is survived by her children Lori Vuyk-Farnsworth (Bill), Cathy Hoesch (Ray), Tom (Dawn), Randy (Elizabeth), Cindy Gines (Rick), Mitsugu Matsusaka (Rosa). She has 21 grandchildren and more than 50 great grandchildren.

The graveside funeral service will be held at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery on Monday, July 6, 2020 at 9:00 am. Please bring a mask if you intend to attend in person. If you are unable to attend, please check out this link www.facebook.com/wasatchlawnmemorial for the recorded service. It will be available starting at 11:00 am.

Special Thanks to Inspiration Hospice and Legacy house Assisted Living for their loving care of our mom.

https://youtu.be/k4-NWLXo3ms