Joyce Fishman

Joyce Fishman of Boynton Beach, Florida, previously of Hypoluxo, Florida, Marshfield, Massachusetts, and Malden, Massachusetts, on June 24, 2026, at the age of 95.

Joyce is predeceased by her late parents, Louis Posner and Rose Levine. For 67 years, the adoring wife of the late Sydney Fishman. Loving mother to Steven (Julie Holmes), Gary (Linda Rochette), and Paul (Michael Kurokawa). Grandmother of Kyle Alexander Fishman (Ariadne Medler), Andrea Lorraine Kappotis (James), and Daniel Roy Fishman-Engel. Great Grandmother of Sophie Mae Medler Fishman. Sister to Ann Arvedon, Norman Posner (Susan), and Ilene Sumberg (Simon). She is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends who were dear to her.

In addition to her late husband, Sydney, she was preceded in death by her brother Fred Posner, her brother-in-law Stuart Arvedon, and her daughter-in-law Kay Recktenwald.

Joyce Posner Fishman grew up in Malden, Massachusetts, with her mother, uncle, and aunts, in the home of her grandparents, Oscar and Lillian (Weinstein) Levine, who served as her parents.

She recognized that her given name was a good fit for her — as she put it, she embodied vivaciousness and joy, traits she shared freely with family and friends whenever she was able. Though she battled depressive episodes at times, her light always returned.

On August 1, 1947, her aunt, Lillian’s sister Annie (Weinstein) Myerow wanted company at Nantasket beach. Joyce did not want to go. Annie insisted. Joyce relented and moments later, met Sydney Fishman, then about to begin his junior year at Harvard. They had their first date days later, meeting up on a tennis court, and the rest is history.

Here is some of that history: Joyce was first in her class at Brandeis in the college’s first graduating class. She completed two years and was at the top of her class when she took a leave from school just prior to her marriage to Sydney on June 26, 1949.

They lived in Somerville, Sydney working at her grandfather’s radio store and Joyce becoming a homemaker. Two years later, they purchased a poultry farm, “The Maples” in Marshfield. As they put it to their three sons, some years later, “Rather than retire to a farm, we decided to raise our family on one.”

Farm life was a mix of delights and challenges, from the 200-year-old historic house and barn set on 15 landscaped acres, to the 3000 chickens, to the acres of vegetable gardens, and the center circle flower bed. Joyce had an egg route, and the month after Steven was born, having canned 1000 jars of marmalade from a bumper crop of tomatoes that summer, she began selling those on the route as well. Not many sold. Tomato marmalade instead became a staple in Joyce’s kitchen, serving mostly as a glaze for baked chicken. She was also famous for her apple pies with butter and cream cheese crust and for corn feasts, the water set on the stove to boil before the corn was picked and husked for that evening’s meal on the screened porch.

Although the family remained on the farm, the income generated by it was not adequate to meet expenses, given pressures from the much larger poultry industry growing in Maine and from a destructive hurricane. By the early 1960s, to supplement Sydney’s income in real estate, book sales, and finally his 20-year career as a high school science teacher, Joyce became a World Book Encyclopedia saleswoman. Despite battling episodes of depression, she knocked on doors, having some of them slammed in her face, many opened, and a percentage of presentations leading to sales. She prided herself on bringing education into family homes. By the end of her 25-year career, and just before Wikipedia emerged, she was the number one salesperson in the company for 2 years running, for which she was honored at annual meetings in Chicago.

When she was 28 years old, she and Sydney, with their 6, 4, and 2-year-old sons, drove to Newton to visit her father at his home with his second family, and that is the day our family happily grew to include Joyce’s step-mother, Esther (Fine) and siblings, Ann, Fred, Norman, and Ilene. The two families bonded that day, and Joyce so appreciated these deep connections and enjoyed many gatherings for celebrations, holidays, and the occasional corn feasts.

Joyce witnessed her three sons finding their ways in life, taking delight in their successes and fretting greatly at the inevitable bumps in their roads. She was a people person, loving connections with all her extended family and friends, but it was Sydney, Steven, Gary, and Paul who were the main focus of her affections.

During their 40 years in Marshfield, Joyce and Sydney played tennis regularly, getting their sons on the court as well as friends. They enjoyed an active social life. Roberta and Burt Cowan deserve special mention as their closest friends. They and their children, Richard and Jayne, were family.

In 1991, Joyce and Sydney sold the farm and moved to Hypoluxo, FL, where they enjoyed ongoing close connections to friends who had also moved away from the snow, and where they thrived in the Half Moon Bay condo community, with a host of new friendships. Her two older sons and their families soon moved to Florida, following in their footsteps, allowing Joyce and Sydney to become doting grandparents to Kyle and Andrea. Each summer, the couple traveled to San Francisco to visit their youngest son and his family, and his husband, and beginning in 1996, their coparents, Joanne Engel and Ellen Haller, and their grandson, Daniel. They created “G and G camp,” providing their youngest with an enriched experience reading aloud and exploring San Francisco’s museums, music, and restaurants.

Their final trip to San Francisco was in 2009 when Daniel became bar mitzvah. It was during that visit that Sydney’s dementia symptoms began. He lived for 6 more years, during which time Joyce stood by him, moving with him to independent living, where she took over some of his roles. After Sydney passed 10 years ago this month, she lived in four other assisted living communities, moving each time with the help of her sons and their spouses, as each facility deteriorated in quality of care and food due to changes in ownership resulting in budget cuts.

At each new community, once she settled in, she started a weekly talk-story hour for fellow residents. She would come up with a topic, tell a story of her own by example, and then invite those who gathered to share their own tales. New friendships blossomed as a result.

On Mother’s Day, just before her 95th birthday, Joyce experienced a minor stroke. She amazingly recovered four days later and was able to enjoy her 95th birthday celebration with her sons, daughters, son-in-law, and her dear friend Socorro Ramirez. She enjoyed a lobster stew with an ocean view in a private dining room, wearing her pretty pink suit and hummingbird pin.

Graveside services are private. Shiva gathering immediately following services, to be held at the home of Norman and Susan Posner, on Sunday, June 28.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made in Joyce’s memory to Mental Health America at https://mhanational.org or The C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, at https://sfjung.org