Joanne was born July 16, 1949 in Paterson, NJ to Lois and Edward Breuer of Paterson. She was raised in Glen Rock, NJ, where she graduated Glen Rock High School in 1967. She graduated in 1971 from Russell Sage College in Troy, NY, where she majored in economics. She lived primarily in Glen Rock until 2006, when she fulfilled a longtime aspiration and moved to Cape Cod, and described it as living in Paradise.
Joanne had nearly 40 years of service with Aetna, Inc when she retired in 2014 as manager of the Law and Regulatory Affairs License Team. After retiring, she began the traveling she had long wanted to do, making multiple trips a year with groups or with her sister to European destinations in Italy, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Scotland, England and Hungary.
At the same time, she involved herself more deeply in life on Cape Cod, joining multiple exercise classes, volunteering for the Cape Cod Symphony, attending First Congregational Church in Chatham, starting a long-running book club and creating a vibrant network of friends.
She had an unerring knack for gestures that would generate happiness. When her mother died in 1999 after many years of creating a homemade gingerbread house at Christmastime for the children’s room at Glen Rock Public Library, Joanne quietly took over the task, driving the completed gingerbread house 300 miles to its destination each year from 2006 on.
She is survived by her father, Edward Breuer, and stepmother, Anne Marie; her sister Nancy and brother David; her former husband Gerard Vyskocil; her nieces Jennifer and Megan Breuer, and great-niece Annabel Vasterink. She will be deeply missed as the person who shuttled among family members from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, the Netherlands and California, knitting us together and keeping us close.
We extend warm thanks to the extraordinary neurology team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
A celebration of Joanne’s life will take place on Friday, June 29 at 2:00 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Chatham.
Joanne will live on in the hearts of many people. If you would like to extend her characteristic generosity with a donation in her name, please consider the Cape Cod Symphony or the Audubon Society of America.
For online condolences, please visit www.nickersonfunerals.com .
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