Joyce M. Chadwick

is honored with a Brick from Phyllis Anderson, Debi, Mark, Andy, and Lisa Chadwick, and Ernie, Larry, and Anna Erwin.

Joyce was born May 8, 1939, in Elk Falls, Kansas. She lived throughout the state and used to lie awake at night, in Ingalls, Kansas, listening to the trains and wondering where they were going and if she would ever get to go with them. As an Army wife, she traveled across the country and to Okinawa.

Joyce did not have an easy life, either as a child or as an adult, and her experiences taught her the importance of education. It was a great concern of hers that her four children finish their degrees and live up to their full potential. She thought it was imperative that woman could rely on herself and her own abilities to survive.

Joyce taught daycare for 16 years and Sunday School for 14 years. Children were everything to her, especially her children and grandchildren.

When she was diagnosed with cancer in January, 1997, Joyce took things in stride and was determined to beat the disease. She was willing and open-minded enough to consider all treatments available, but the cancer had spread to her liver which limits the response of chemotherapy.

Mom died at home surrounded by her mother, sister, and two daughters. It stormed that day, October 25,1997, just as it would have in the gothic novels she loved to read. Twenty-four hours later, huge fluffy snow flakes filled the air and on the day of her funeral it was like spring. Everything was perfect, except Joyce was not there to see it. Or was she?

It is sad that she will not see her grandchildren grow up, but Joyce Chadwick touched many lives with her teaching and is very missed in El Dorado, Kansas.

July 7, 1998