Joyce Elinor Prosser 1923–2021
Joyce Prosser passed away at the age of 98 on December 3, 2021, at Bayfield Manor in Kemptville, Ontario. She was the youngest child of Herbert Garrard and Sarah Christie Garrard and long outlived her four siblings: Eileen, Stanley, Gordon and Evalyn. Joyce married Philip Prosser, the love of her life, in 1943 and was widowed in 1997. She was the favourite aunt of Elaine Bryce, Carol Cairns, Clare Prosser, Elizabeth Irving Cramp, Kathryn Irving Betteridge and the late Gordon Irving. Later, she became great-aunt to Wendy, Jesse, Cynthia, Lindsay, Emma and Ava, and more recently great-great-aunt to Holly, Finley, Rebecca and Rachel.
Joyce was born on August 15, 1923, in Toronto, where she spent most of her working career in accounting at Imperial Oil Limited. She married Phil Prosser when she was 20 and in the 1950s they bought their first home, a bungalow on Midland Avenue on the edge of Agincourt, a suburb of Toronto. Their two-acre lot was already planted with raspberry bushes and they added many vegetable and flower beds as their love of gardening blossomed. Joyce was an excellent cook, as was her mother before her, and she made the most of that garden. It was here that they got their first dog, Grundy, who brought them many years of joy.
In addition to gardening, Joyce and Phil enjoyed fishing and birdwatching, and they acquired some expertise in both. In the 1960s they built a cottage near Parry Sound on Lake Manitouwabing and for more than 20 years they loved to spend weekends and summer vacations there. Over the years they also had the opportunity to travel to Portugal, to enjoy Caribbean cruises and to visit relatives and friends in Florida and the Dominican Republic.
In the late 1960s, Joyce and Phil moved to a new split level home in Unionville, just north of Toronto. They now had two dogs: Checkers, a German shepherd, and Kemo, a Malamute. Phil worked for Purina, and photogenic Checkers appeared in an ad for the company. Without the huge Agincourt garden, they were able enjoy more quality time with their cottage and with the good friends–especially Jean and Ted Kurtz, and Al and Doris Hockley—they had made in their new neighbourhood.
At age 55, Joyce joined Phil in retirement and they enjoyed life together as they slowed down. In 1988, they decided the house was too much for them to keep up and moved to a condo not far away. Their neighbour, Jean Kurtz, recently widowed, moved at the same time to the unit beside them and their friendship continued. Around this time Joyce and Phil sold their cottage. Joyce and Jean spent a lot of time together shopping, lunching and attending church services. Unfortunately, both Joyce’s eyes began to develop macular degeneration, which slowly robbed her of her vision over the years.
After Phil died in May 1997, Joyce stayed in the condo, where Jean was always at the ready to help as her vision deteriorated. But she soon realized that she needed more care and more family access, so she moved to a retirement unit at Bayfield Manor in Kemptville at the suggestion of her niece Elizabeth. This was in February 2004, six months after her 80th birthday. She was legally blind at this point. At Bayfield she made good friends—in particular, Eleanor Carmichael, Jessie Boyd and Hugh Stewart—and was very happy. Through Eleanor she became a supporter of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Kemptville. She kept track of Canadian and American politics and Coronation Street on TV and loved discussing them all. She enjoyed family visits and having lunch out, especially at the Brigadoon Restaurant in Oxford Mills, and her room was often shown as a model to prospective residents. The staff were friendly and kind, but she developed dementia and eventually the care she required could not be supplied by the retirement home.
In 2018, she moved to Bayfield’s long term care side to meet her increasing care needs. For the first year she happily shared a room with another lady who needed a lot of care and so the room was often visited by staff. When she moved to a single room a year later, she complained about being lonely because she was quite self-sufficient most of the time and did not require staff presence as much as her roommate had. But she had her telephone, her TV and especially her CD player and spent many happy hours listening to Elvis singing hymns. One of the staff members read to her and she loved that. Her family visited her and took her out as much as possible.
As her dementia increased, she lost interest in the TV and then in the telephone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bayfield Manor experienced no outbreaks and Joyce sailed through. However, in the summer of 2021, she developed congestive heart failure and finally succumbed, not without a feisty fight, on December 3, 2021. Her niece Elizabeth and great-niece Cynthia were with her at the end.
Special thanks to the LTC staff at Bayfield for their excellent care of Joyce, especially Terri and Lise, and to Dr. Leonard. Your kindness and care are much appreciated by Joyce’s family.
No funeral service is planned at this time. Joyce’s ashes will be interred with her husband’s in Toronto at a later date.
Friday December 3rd 2021
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Joyce Elinor Prosser Garrard Friday December 3rd 2021..
Décès pour la Ville:Kemptville, Province: Ontario