Page 12 - Absolute Final 13 Spring 2025 Newsletter

When school ended Joy joined the Land Army working on a farm in Chipping
Sodbury. She bought herself a motorbike to get there and educated prisoners
of war in the art of throwing bales onto the carts. As an excellent horsewoman
she became the groom and looked after the Estate’s horses, a job she loved.
In 1951 her dad retired from I.C.I. and a year later Joy joined the army as an
MT driver. She drove trucks and ambulances alongside staff cars, transporting
high ranking officers and occasionally royalty around London. When driving
royalty, the car would have pennants (flags) on the bonnet and police would
wave it through unhindered. Sometimes, she admitted, she would put the
pennants on when she was alone and drive through really fast… Good girl, I
say.
When her army life finished Joy returned home to Bristol and was employed
by Coventry & Jeff’s as a driver, delivering high end cars around the country.
Bentleys, Jaguars and the odd Rolls Royce were Joy’s stock in trade. Just
imagine a country gent taking instruction on his new car from a slip of a woman
who then walked off down the drive and made her own way home in the late
50s and early 60s. She often said that although she loved the job it did nothing
for her love life because she would arrange a date and then be sent to Scotland
at short notice without being able to contact her date and tell them she
wouldn’t be there… Obviously that didn’t go down well and second dates were
rare.

In the mid 60s she settled down and joined Mardon Son and Hall in the office
and worked there for 26 years until she took early retirement.
You, her friends and family, will know that she had a wicked sense of humour
and was quite unshockable, however, to anyone who didn’t know her well she
was shy; a people watcher quietly observing from the sidelines.
In the late 60s her Mum and Dad sold the shop and bought a cottage in
Kendalshire, they called it “Justacottage”. She loved showing, and anything
Keeshond, comparing the lineage of dogs she admired as they worked their
way to champions. Her dad passed away and her mum sadly began showing
signs of dementia. Ironically, Joy would tragically follow her mum down that
awful road later.
In 1987 Joy bought a bungalow in Glenside Close, Frenchay, where it was
easier to look after her mum. They continued to go to dog shows together
and train the puppies. Joy loved to do agility with her dogs, putting them over
jumps and through tunnels against the clock. There was never a day that Joy
lived without at least one but often two dogs by her side. She joined the
Keeshond Club at its inception and would be one of the longest serving members.
In later years after her mum’s passing she concentrated on the dogs, still
driving to the shows with her friends, meeting the ladies and occasionally a
man, my Dad, in the park sitting on their favourite bench chatting and laughing
every day, rain or shine. I will remember her this way with love… laughing
with her dogs by her side. By Kim Pearce

12