Maya’s Granny: Joycelyn Ward

There was a different post planned for today. It can wait because now we must instead celebrate the life of Maya’s Granny, also known as Joycelyn Ward.

Note the spelling of her first name. She gently admonished me – as well she should - a couple of years ago when I addressed an email to her as Jocelyn.

On Sunday, Joycelyn died of a heart attack. She had undergone quintuple bypass surgery in February and moved from Alaska to California to retire. But she never fully recovered from the surgery and a couple of subsequent falls that injured her.

Joycelyn was one of the best storytellers in the elder blogosphere. There are so many terrific tales on her blog that you can choose at random from her archive and find something you will enjoy. As she posted on her banner:

“This is where I share the wisdom that a granny, as an elder of the tribe, accumulates in her journey through life. The reach of my mind is wide, sometimes even a little deep. Sometimes, like Whitman, I contradict myself. Sometimes I wax eloquent. Sometimes I fall on my face. Why not do it in public?”

She certainly didn’t fall on her face when she appeared here as a guest blogger when I was out of town for a week in 2007, contributing Waking Up Sixty, which attracted a ton of comments.

Her daughter has a left a note at Maya’s Granny and her son-in-law has posted a charming remembrance on his blog.

Here is the photo from her banner - Joycelyn with young Maya of her blog’s name.

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Lia shows us how easily, sometimes, a secret can be revealed in Sparks.]