Friday, July 15, 2022
Joyce Allen did touch a lot of hearts. Certainly, she touched mine, and she also helped and influenced me greatly.
Back in the fall of 1969, when the marriage of her dad and my mom made us sisters, it wasn’t obvious that we would become close. While she was almost 20 and already married, I was just turning nine. She was practical, upbeat and confident, with a sense of fun. I was shy, often anxious and a bookworm.
Joyce welcomed me, though, and I was soon spending my summers at her house and learning about keeping house and a lot more as well. She had an amazing mix of skills and abilities and could do a variety of things with ease. Over the years, I saw her work as a nurse (an LPN), a swimming instructor, a CPR course instructor, a classroom teacher, and as director of two different daycare centers and start her own cleaning business too. She was an excellent organizer and also good at all kinds of arts, crafts and home projects.
She kept in touch with me throughout my school years and found ways to keep me busy. In the beginning it was as babysitter to my two lovable nieces (smile), but she also found me a couple of summer jobs, mostly working for her. After I graduated from college and decided to move to Africa, she helped me shop for all of my supplies and pack. When I came home, she and her husband Phil loaned me their slide projector to use in speaking at churches about my work. Later, when I came home engaged, she became my wedding planner, and when I came home pregnant with twins, she served as my labor coach. My husband, Doug, took to calling her and Phil, “Mr. and Mrs. Goodheart.” As he had to stay at his job overseas, Joyce was the one who accompanied me to most of my prenatal visits. I went through early labor at her house, and she was by my side tirelessly through the birth of my daughters.
No adventure I invited her on was too daunting or too much work. She was up for helping me take my 8-week old twins back home to Ivory Coast and showing me how to manage them well on the flights. Then she did it all again when their younger brother was born! Later on, when we homeschooled, she and Phil also tutored the three of them in science.
I think Joyce modeled many traits of a Proverbs 31 woman. Her first priority was her husband and children, but she was always generous with her time and energy whenever I had a need. She was also a possibility thinker, moving me on from my worries and showing me repeatedly that where there’s a will, there’s a way. I hope I was able to bless her even a quarter as much as she did me. Missing her so much, but I look forward to seeing her again one day, by and by.
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