A bit of a special Golden age participant to end 2025.
Her name is Joy, & it certainly is a fitting name, especially for her Christmas decorating. Joy's daughter Sara asked if I could travel to her home in Rutherford to capture the simply amazing Christmas display she puts together each year. It really is something else!
Joy Brown
Born: June 1947 in Ballina NSW
Father, Sandy, was an Australian soldier from WW2 where he met his wife Olga (from Russia), both as prisoners of war. They married and then her mother immigrated to Australia where they settled on a Dairy farm near Ballina.
She was the eldest of 4 girls. they were very poor, worked hard, even as children. Went to school. Joy was a very shy child. Her father was very tough love and put a lot of responsibility on her as the eldest. She basically raised her youngest sister from birth to teens. They moved to Liverpool in her teen years where she finished her schooling
Joy did many jobs, her first in the bakery as a cake decorator and then as a milliner.
Joy married in 1965 and divorced in early 00’s. it was a very tough time for Joy following the breakup. They had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls
Joy had stayed home to care for her children full time. She loved it, always said it was all she wanted to do! One day when her youngest was around 14-15, she somehow fluked a job out of nowhere, as a tour director for Scenic Tours, which took her all over Australia, New Zealand and Canada, she absolutely loved it!
She also worked as a housekeeper for a company which sent her travelling to teach others how to do the same role. This included training indigenous employees in the Kimberley. She was also based at Perisher, where she learnt to ski in her 50’s
Joy has been a sewer all her life. She loves anything crafty from embroidery to quilting to cross stitch and anything else you could think of. Her daughter Sara recalls many fond memories of her mum holding craft classes in their living room. But her biggest hobby to date is definitely decorating. Christmas especially. She begins in September in order to get it all up and is very meticulous with how everything is done. She allows groups to do walk throughs, even taking buses from nearby retirement villages. She absolutely loves sharing her love of Christmas with anyone who will listen!
She is still involved with helping at an aged care facility and has a special spot in her heart for the dementia patients.
Joy said she has 35 Christmas trees currently and just bought some on special at Kmart a couple of days ago.
She is also very proud of her 9 grandchildren.
