Joyce Mary Love's Obituary
Joyce Mary (Athman) Love, 83, passed away on June 30, 2024, at her home in Lahaina, Hawaii. Joyce was born on May 31, 1941, in St. Paul, Minnesota to Irma and Rudy Athman, the eldest of seven children. In fifth grade she and her family moved to a farm in St. Cloud where she attended a one-room schoolhouse. (She was fond of telling the story of being only one of two children in her 8th grade class-the other was her cousin!) After graduating high school at St. Cloud Tech in 1959, she attended and graduated from St. Cloud Benedictine School of Nursing. Working as a nurse afforded her the ability to pursue her love of travel, a life-long passion that took her all over the world. She was a nurse in the Peace Crops, stationed in Brazil, from 1964 - 1966 and on the World Campus Afloat in 1968-1969. While living in California and working as an emergency room nurse, she was introduced to William Frank Love. Nine months later, on May 30, 1970, they married and moved to Chicago suburbs where they lived for 51 years, spending 6 months in Hawaii each year after retirement and moving there permanently in 2020.
Joyce was an accomplished seamstress, widely known for her exquisite quilts that not only decorated her homes but the homes of friend and relatives, to whom she often gifted them. She was a member of the Salt Creek Quilters Guild and the Maui Quilt Guild. A voracious reader, she greatly enjoyed book discussion groups and kept many scrap papers around with book titles someone had recommended to her. She was an avid and talented tennis player all her adult life, continuing to play well into her late 70s.
She had an outgoing personality with a genuine curiosity about people that made her so adept at making conversation and forging friendships. Joyce, on her three-times-every-day-without-any-exception walks, never failed to do two things: (1) pick up and dispose of every item of trash she passed; (2) offer a friendly, usually jocular greeting to every passer-by, never failing to elicit a happy smile in return.
For 50 years, some 40-odd of Joyce's relatives and closest friends could count on receiving a Christmas letter, each written individually to that person. Joyce spent the greater part of every December writing these loving communications. On her 80th birthday, her husband organized a "card shower" and she received over 100 cards from loved ones near and far.
Joyce is survived by her loving Husband of 54 years, William, daughters Barbara (Ed) Teaman and Karen (Brandon Morrow) Love, four grandchildren - Abigail, Meriel, Rylen and Josie, siblings - Roger (Maureen) Athman, Bruce (Dolly) Athman, Barbara (Doug) Paulson, Vernon (Mary) Athman, Gail Weber, and by 35 nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents Irma and Rudy Athman, and by her brother Joseph Athman.
Joyce was greatly loved by so many and will be dearly missed and remembered.
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