Aunt Joyce also was a great seamstress.  I not only was given the clothes from her girls,but she helped alter them for my shorter, chunkier stature, and washed and ironed them up before those dresses came to my closet, so I felt I had new clothes too.

Aunt Joyce also cut my hair when I was growing up....curly and as unruly as it was, she would always say "Oh, what beautiful curls you have!" .....when I knew it was like a hornet's nest, just trying to get a comb through it when I was little.....but it made me feel like a princess, sitting on a stool in her kitchen in Arlington on the farm, waiting to see how it turned out; and truly for a few weeks, it would look much better!

Aunt Joyce always had time for a good visit and a personal talk, usually starting out with, "Now, How ARE YOU?" and really wanting to chew over any problem or dilemma a young mother/wife might have. You had her full attention, and no matter how long between visits, we could chew over our own problems, or the problems of the world, and it was like she was a counselor and advisor, giving her best advice she could offer up from her world of life that she had lived. She had a inner strength that exemplified to me that women support other women, that we are not always promised the easiest road, but we would get down that road, with the help of God and each other.   

Aunt Joyce had a great life; but not always an easy life.  Burying those she loved, finding how to live on less that enough money, encouraging others when she herself was having a tough go, standing firm in light of farm accidents...the first of which was her son Bob involved in a tractor overturning on him.  He is alive today I believe because she was so positive that it could have a good resolution and nursed him back to health. She has been a true matriarch of the family, both her immediate and extended family.

When someone puts a sign on her door, saying "please just come on in, and just announce yourself when you open the door", well that is truly the open door policy to help anyone in need.  She was generous to a fault.  She got that from Gramma Draper, her mother.  I never left but what I didn't have a picture, or a bookmark, or a piece of pie, ......and a hug and a kiss, and a wave and a smile to be on my way feeling better and stronger because of my visit.  I am sure I am not alone.

A life as a servant and disciple of Christ, a life lived fully, and a legacy of giving and serving others.  What a legacy, from a little woman in Carthage.  I will miss her; but know there is a great Euchre player looking for a spot a the table in Heaven right now.

Blessings go out to her wonderful family that she created and educated in what truly matters.