Catherine Bond (formerly Beaumont) 30th August 2022

Joyce led retreat days for us at Otley Hall for many years. I loved her and her days - she was warm, deeply spiritual, kind, a great teacher, funny and insightful. I always remember a story she told: she had gone into the churchyard at St Mary's Hadleigh and seen some empty beer cans on the grass. She was annoyed and looked closer. As she looked, she saw a carpet of daisies that she had not noticed before. Her reflection was - bad things can lead to good. Look beyond! She was also very kind and understanding to Jane Pearse and me when we had to resign from ministry to be together. She asked Jane to be her spiritual director and continued to come to retreat days we led at home. Our last memory of her is when she joined our Celtic Christianity day from her home. At lunchtime she wrote a wonderful poem about being in her garden called 'A prayer of thanks, a prayer for God's blessing on his creatures...the gifts of the Creator, seen in my garden on 11.11.21'. It was so Joyce, full of joy, and observation, humour, and thankfulness.