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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