Page 64 - Bulletin, Vol.81 No.2, December 2022
P. 64

Jill  retained  close  contacts  with  the  WHO  Copenhagen  Regional  Office  at  which  she
            had also been President of the EURO Staff Association from 1997 to 2000; she gave
            invaluable aid to the organisation of a seminar on pension information for all retirees in
            Scandinavia which, in 2006, was run by the Pension Fund secretariat and the Chairman
            of AAFl-AFICS.
            She continued supporting retirees, especially on matters of pensions and staff health
            insurance,  with  resilience  and  dedication  until  she  had  a  stroke  in  2021.  For  me,  Jill
            joins the loss of so many heroes and heroines in the service of the retiree UN family.







                                             JOY PATTINSON

                                                   1935-2022


                                                                    By Elisabeth BELCHAMBER

            Joy was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, and the most easterly town of Britain and at that
            time a lively fishing port. She died in hospital at Morges in July 2022.

            Joy  voluntarily  ended  her  formal  schooling  as  quickly  as  possible  in  her  thirst  for
            independence. Ignoring parental guidance, she quickly found jobs in a solicitor’s office,
            the  local  hospital,  or  Butlin’s  where  she  shared  a  caravan  with  two  other  girls.  She
            dashed  from  one  job  to  the  next  and  then  discovered  the  international  circuit.  She
            started to have contracts for conferences in Strasbourg, Geneva, Rome, Cairo… She
            decided on the Geneva area as a base but never wanted, or accepted, a permanent
            job. She loved the challenge of constant change, a fortnight here, a couple of months
            there; UNDP, ECE,  Human Rights, the Law of the Sea, Disarmament, FAO, and the
            Staff Council. She worked in Addis and New York and spent some time in Iran, Greece,
            and  Nigeria.  She  was  a  rebel.  Her  ideas  and  opinions  rarely  agreed  with  the
            mainstream.: “Laws are made to be broken” she would proclaim, Anti so many things
            from  car  seat  belts  to  plastic  bottles  she  did  not  always  make  friends  :  Amusing,
            infuriating, entertaining, impulsive.

            After retiring from the UN, she lived in Coppet and St. Georges, then found a ground-
            floor flat in Rolle, with a garden that she cherished. She loved watching the birds that
            she kept well supplied in breadcrumbs – dashing off because she had forgotten to buy
            more bird food. The neighbouring cats were also sure of finding a saucer of cream, and
            the hedgehogs who built a lovely nesting place on her terrace. And, of course, her dogs:
            Sheba, Joker, Jasper, Cheeky, and Saskia, to name a few. She believed there must be
            a  life  after  life  –  “otherwise  what  is  the  point  of  being  born?”  and  thought  she  might
            come back as a bird like the cheeky little robin that turned up each year.

            She  hated  growing  old,  having  to  ask  for  help,  the  thought  of  having  to  depend  on
            others. She wanted to choose her own fruit and vegetables and would jump into her
            little car to do her shopping. At 87 she was still driving – on the roads around Rolle – not
            the motorway. Always impatient, it had to be today, now; an immense will power to carry


            62                                                  AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 81 No. 2, 2022-12
   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69