Brenda F. Smith
I have many fond memories of Aunt Joyce. She knew how to teach and bring joy into the lives of people. While visiting the family in Hobbs, New Mexico she taught me how to cook a couple of simple dishes. When her neighbor offered to keep Mark, Kent and Linda she and I went to see the John Wayne movie that had just come out that year.
One other visit with them was in southeast Texas when I was about 12 years old. There was a swimming pool close to the house that we could enjoy. Linda was a baby so a neighbor was happy to keep her while we went to the pool. Mark was already a swimmer and was happily enjoying the pool.. Aunt Joyce said "I want to teach Kent how to swim today- and I need you help. We stood about 3 or 4 feet apart in the pool to start out and checked his mouth to make sure it was closed-- then gave him a send off in the water to me about 3 or 4 ft.away. He was not afraid of the water at all so we would back up about 2 more feet. We kept backing up each time he got to us and before we left Kent was swimming across the width of the pool and enjoying every minute.
In many ways Aunt Joyce was an encourager to all who knew her.
