Joy, Mary
Joy, Mary Elizabeth
July 18, 1929 – September 20, 2025
Mary Elizabeth Joy (née Vasey) passed away peacefully at the age of 96 with her children by her side, after a lifetime of love, learning, and adventure.
Mary was born in Toronto, Ontario to Oliver Mark and Mary Gladys Vasey. She is predeceased by her husband of 60 years, John Richard (“Dick”) Joy, and sisters Barbara Conzelman and Gwendolyn Woodburn Sarossy.
Mary embraced life with arms wide open, always ready for something new. She earned her nursing diploma from Women’s College Hospital in 1951, after which she went to Parry Sound for a fun working summer, where she met Dick Joy, an aeronautical engineer, whose quirky charms won her over. They married in 1952 and returned to the Toronto area in 1953. Mary and Dick moved to Michigan in 1959, where they lived for over 40 years and raised 3 children. In 1967, Mary returned to nursing, earning a BScN, and later two master’s degrees, one in Public Health and another in Medical Anthropology, the latter focused on the medicinal uses of plants among First Nations people.
Mary and Dick traveled extensively in Latin America and Spain, where she studied Spanish and soaked up local cultures. She was a Georgian Bay girl from her childhood summers in Victoria Harbour to her adult summers at the family cottage in Nares Inlet, still swimming and kayaking into her 93rd year.
She made everyone around her feel understood and special, and made space for others to shine. She volunteered for more organizations than her family can count. For many years, she took on fundraising projects to support children with HIV/AIDS in Africa though Grandmothers to Grandmothers. She volunteered at libraries in Pointe Au Baril and the Village by the Arboretum. Even in her last week, she was knitting a scarf for a charitable cause.
She met her challenges with resilience and graceful determination. An accomplished weaver until macular degeneration reduced her vision, she pivoted to opera. She joined, and eventually led, an opera club, and then took up drumming. She practiced Tai Chi and was a keen swimmer into her 95th year.
Mary was the beating heart of the family. She will be deeply missed by her children, Janet (Mark), Doug (Cathy), and Trish (Peter), her six grandchildren Carolyn, Jes (Nick), Graham (Andy), Hannah (Zach), Laura (Nathan), and Torie, her four great-grandchildren Setia, Surya, Abigail, and Lucy, and many nieces and nephews. Her love, generosity and spirit of adventure live on through her family.
The family will host a Celebration of Life on Sunday, October 19, 2:00-4:00 pm at the Village by the Arboretum located at 33 Village Green Drive, Guelph, Ontario. Anyone wishing to make a donation in Mary’s name may want to consider a charity close to her heart: Doctors Without Borders, Canadian Red Cross, or the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind).
