Joyce Irene Williams

Joyce Irene Williams (nee Richardson) passed away peacefully on July 4, 2025, just days after celebrating her 100th birthday. She was predeceased by her parents George and Gladys Richardson (nee Hammerschmidt), her siblings Don, Lois and Dorothy, as well as her husband Rex in 1986. Joyce is survived by her children Geri, David and Brian, her brother Eldon Richardson, many cousins and 2 grandchildren.

Joyce grew up in the Saskatchewan countryside in the Riceton/Bechard area just to the southwest of Regina (her birthplace). Her earliest memory went back to 1928. She was about 3 years old and had contracted a sudden severe illness. Her paternal grandmother visited the family, looked at sickly little Joyce and dismissively said "Hmmph. She won't last long." This ominous prediction thankfully didn't age well (at least, not nearly as well as Joyce herself did).

Young Joyce - and ultimately all 4 of her siblings - attended Badger Hill School. This was one of those iconic one room schoolhouses prevalent throughout many areas of rural Canada in times past. It was only a half kilometer walk from the family farm. Mondays were the best days to walk home, as this was the designated baking day at the Richardson homestead and Joyce was usually greeted by the smell of fresh bread and coffee cake long before she made it to her door.

Her earliest memory as a first grade student was an unsettling one that may have shaped the rest of her life. She recalled being outside the back of the school, walking around to the front, and seeing a handful of older girls - aged perhaps 9, 10, 11 - gathered at the front door and chatting amiably to each other. When they saw little Joyce Richardson walk into view, they all immediately scowled disapprovingly at her without saying a word. She remembers being completely unnerved and confused by this hostile reaction. Some years later, she finally discovered the reason for their apparent contempt: her parents had wed in April of 1925, and she was born within 3 months of the occasion.

Some of the more sanctimonious local tongues had obviously taken to wagging, children overheard parental gossip and gathered that there was something vaguely disreputable regarding the circumstances by which Joyce Richardson entered this world, at least by the standards of that time and place.

As with many of life's little and not-so-little hardships, this jarring memory of Joyce's early childhood can probably be thanked for positively molding the young lady into someone who would spend their life always cultivating a sense of togetherness and belonging, fostering inclusion and acceptance, and facing her world with a sort of shy, self-effacing conviviality.

Joyce was sent to the high school in nearby Lewvan to complete her grade 12 after finishing grades 9 through 11 by correspondence. Now it was on to Moose Jaw Normal School, where prospective teachers received training in the 'norms' of education. Her debut in a teaching capacity was at Cross School near Riceton, from 1943 to 1947. She had also been working intermittently doing light housekeeping. "Light housekeeping" is not to be confused with lighthouse keeping - as has happened in later years when Joyce was recalling some of her life experiences for one particularly confused listener, to more than a little amusement.

It seems by this point Joyce had already settled on teaching grade 1, much to her own surprise, as she had initially imagined herself being a junior high school teacher.

At some point early in her career, there arose an urgent need for a grade 1 teacher and persistent entreaties were directed her way, asking her to fill the position if only temporarily until a permanent first grade teacher could be found. By nature she aimed to please and with considerable reluctance agreed to give it a shot. Focusing on the first grade turned out to be far more fulfilling than she'd expected, and she had officially found her professional calling. Teaching stints at Melville SK, Saskatoon, Brock SK, and Pasqua School in Regina followed...as well as throughout Manitoba in later decades.

By this point she had met a quirky Welshman named Rex who had emigrated to Canada following the dissolution of his first marriage. His eldest son Melvyn also came to live in Canada shortly afterwards while Rex's former wife and other 2 children remained in England. Rex's list of occupations and interests was already so broad and eclectic it would almost be an easier task to cite occupations and interests he never undertook.

Rex and Joyce married on Sept. 5, 1964 - although the manner of Rex's proposal was such that he was very nearly declined. He'd been driving to her house fully intending to pop the question in person, but along the way anxiety and nerves got the better of him, and he pulled off the road into a gas station just a few miles from his destination. He called Joyce from there and proposed to her over the phone which was a far cry from the sort of romantic moment she had presumably envisioned this would be. The fact that she was edging perilously close to her 40th year might have been the deciding factor in her agreeing to marry in spite of how underwhelming she found his proposal. The mid 1960's were eventful years when both Rex and Joyce were working on earning degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, driving both briefly into debt, and in short order welcoming sons David in 1966 and Brian in 1967.

The family moved to Manitoba in 1970, and Joyce had opted to be a stay at home mom during her boys' preschool years. In the meantime, they had briefly lived (one or two years each) in Regina, Mossbank SK, Davidson SK, Russell MB, Winnipeg, and Winnipegosis MB where Rex became the school division's superintendent. The family's first and only overseas vacation together happened in 1975, in the form of a very memorable tour of England and Wales.

Yet another move, this time to Morris, had Joyce teaching in Sanford for a while and then Lowe Farm for the remainder of her career until retiring in 1990, when she moved to Winnipeg for the last 35 years of her life.

Many of her favorite moments took the form of meeting various parents whose older child had previously attended her grade one class, and the parents were anxiously confirming if she'd be sticking around to be their next child's first grade teacher - followed by their sincere relief when she said she wasn't going anywhere. She was many a student's favorite teacher, a title people don't hand out lightly.

She had been widowed in 1986, when Rex passed away peacefully in his sleep mere weeks before he had a chance to enjoy his own imminent retirement. Joyce was tested by a cancer scare in the 1990's, but was successfully treated and the cancer stayed in remission.

Each year for many decades, she'd spend the better part of a week frantically handwriting Christmas cards to an ever growing list of family, friends, and coworkers both current and past. In her life, hobbies and sports were never pursued as an end to themselves. She dabbled in skating, playing piano and harmonica, sketching, bowling, curling, lawn bowling, and so on - never seeking or expecting excellence in these things, she regarded them as useful catalysts for getting together with friends and acquaintances. However, owing to her roots as a farm girl, she did take her gardening seriously, and tended to her tomatoes and flowers well into her eighties before her advancing age and the rabbits' persistent appetites convinced her to hang up her little gloves.

Family and friends conspired to arrange a surprise 80th birthday party in Regina, which she fondly remembered for the rest of her life.

And it was in her eighties that a life altering event occurred, one that she likely regarded as the most positive surprise she would ever experience. She learned that a daughter she'd quietly given up for adoption long ago, prior to having ever met Rex, was reaching out through the appropriate channels hoping to contact her birth mother. As is usually the case in such situations, it was only due to prohibitively inauspicious circumstances and timing that Joyce had ever made the wrenching decision to surrender the child at birth in the first place, and did not speak of it during the intervening decades.

She and Joyce were very fortunate to reconnect and share good times, most notably evenings spent on the back deck watching the wildlife at Joyce's Winnipeg house. Recently, Geri joined Brian and David in helping Joyce celebrate her 100th birthday. Although living in Italy (Geri had married an Italian man who'd initially met her when he traveled to Canada on a vacation), Geri was quickly embraced by Joyce's other children as if she'd always been there. Plus, through Geri, Joyce suddenly had two grandsons.

These developments were surely the most powerful sources of satisfaction and profound relief for Joyce in her twilight years.

Dementia and hearing loss had already taken hold of her by age 90, although she maintained a remarkable degree of mobility until breaking her hip a few weeks before she passed. But even as her awareness of many other things in her world gradually dimmed, she'd keep repeating to anyone in earshot how much she cared about her family and friends...refusing to let THAT concept fade from her mind.

In the course of her 100 years it seems safe to say she made the world a better place, and perhaps even made the people around her better people. That's a well-lived life in any book.

Her service will be held on Thursday, July 31, 2025 at 10:00 AM at Thomson “In the Park” Funeral Home, 1291 McGillivray Blvd.