Joyce Gwendolyn Van Rossum

A memorial service for Joyce will be held Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Courtyard Fountains, 1545 SE 223rd Ave, Gresham, Oregon.

Joyce (Berg) Van Rossum was born on June 4, 1926 on a farm about five miles from Willmar, Minnesota. She was the second child of Roy and Alvina Berg. She had an older brother, Roger, and was later joined by two sisters, Betty and Barbara, and another brother, Roy, Jr. Joyce lived a typical farm life of that era. She lived on 3 different farms during her growing-up years. These farms had no indoor plumbing, running water, electricity or telephones (the last farm did get electricity when Joyce was fourteen). The farms were large so there were always chores to do, starting with gathering corn cobs as kindling for the wood burning cook stove, the first step on a path to being Mother’s, “Homemaker in Training.”

The first eight years of her schooling were at country schools where all eight grades were taught in one room with one teacher. School attendance revolved around the seasons and farm schedules so attendance by boys tended to be spotty. The high school was in Willmar with several hundred students. During this time World War II began. Joyce qualified for the Cadet Nurse Corp and spent the next four years after high school graduation at the University of Minnesota becoming and working as a nurse.

In 1948, she and her sister, Betty, decided to take the summer off and visit cousins in Bremerton, Washington with the plan to move to Seattle in the fall. They enjoyed the summer visit, but the move to Seattle never materialized. In July of that year, through cousins and friends, Joyce met Darrel Van Rossum, a machinist in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and married him a year later.

Joyce was a stay-at-home wife and mother for the next thirty five years. She and Darrel had four children: David, Diana, Tom and John. Her life was filled with baby showers, birthday parties, piano recitals, report cards, band concerts, parades, wrestling, swim and track meets, graduations and square dancing as well as Sunday school, church summer camps, baptisms, first jobs, scout hikes, water skiing, fishing, camping, homework, watching the kids mature into responsible adults and just being at home with Darrel. It was the life she chose and she loved it. Weddings, too, became part of her life as in-law children were added to the family. Eight grandchildren were the delight of her life.

Her nursing expertise during this time was limited to being a nurse for friends and relatives when needed, helping with eye and ear testing at the schools and being camp nurse at many of the church camps. Later, she took some special classes and became a childbirth instructor, a job she really enjoyed.

A new era began when Darrel died at the age of sixty seven and Joyce became a widow. These years included the special blessing of having children who loved and helped her, being with grandchildren and eventually the joy of great-grandbabies.

Soon after Darrel’s passing Joyce realized she could not maintain two homes, the home in Bremerton near Kitsap Lake and the beach house in Allyn. Discussions with her family resulted in a unanimous recommendation to move out to the beach. After significant downsizing and renovation of the beach house to become a permanent dwelling instead of just a summer getaway, her new ‘cottage by the bay’ was completed in about a year, and she spent the next 20+ years enjoying life on the Puget Sound.

Eventually, mobility issues led her to move to an independent living facility in Kennewick, Washington, near her daughter Diana. The last years of her life have been spent in Gresham, Oregon, near her son Tom’s family where she continued to meet new people and make friends.

Joyce enjoyed each stage of her life and would be the first to tell you that God is good and that giving her life to Him through Jesus Christ was the best decision she ever made.

Joyce is survived by her four children, David (& Diana), Diana (& Terry), Tom (& Holly), and John (& Kimberly); along with eight grandchildren Jeremy, Joshua, Sandra, Cara, Tanya, Brienna, Kalie and Jonathan and 13 great-grandchildren Allison, Riley, Landen, Noah, Abby, Tyler, Jaxon, Chase, David, Nicholas, Molly, Emmalyn, Penelope, along with many nieces, nephews and cousins whom all loved her dearly.

Joyce’s final resting place is at Miller-Woodlawn Cemetery next to her husband, Darrel, who passed in 1988.