Family fondly remembers Joan
Joan Stockenstrom celebrated her 90th birthday on Valentine's Day and, just a month after celebrating this milestone, she died on March 15, after being ill.
Her youngest son Lee (58), explained that his mother had been ill for the last two years, as a result of old age, but managed to celebrate her birthday.
“She was a Valentine’s baby – full of love and was the life of the party,” he recalled fondly.
She was born in Germiston and moved to Benoni with her family when she was 24.
“We met at a social at the Catholic church in Germiston and we jived so well together that we ended being together,” laughed her husband, Eric (85).
After dancing her way into his heart, Joan and Eric dated for some time and were married in Benoni’s Central Methodist Church.
‘We would have celebrated 64 years of marriage this year,” recalled Eric.
The couple lived in Benoni all their lives, where Joan raised her two sons, Lee and his older brother, Geoffrey (62), who now lives in the United States.
“She was a happy person and loved God and music and dancing. She danced most of her life and enjoyed tap and line dancing,” added Eric.
What was most fascinating about the family’s recollections about Joan was the fact that she was blind, but that most people who met her did not even realise this.
“She didn’t feel sorry for herself and never saw her blindness as a disadvantage, in fact, she was quite independent from a young age,” said Eric.
Somehow her blindness was the reason why Joan was self-sufficient from a young age.
According to her husband, she started experiencing problems with her eyesight when she was just 14 years old and had to obtain contact lenses, which were not yet available in South Africa.
“Her parents put her on a boat to England, where she had to get her contact lenses,”Eric explained.
“They could not afford to accompany her on the trip, so she had to learn to be on her own from that early on.”
Never allowing her loss of sight inhibit her, Joan worked as a switchboard operator, as well as raising her two sons.
“She was amazing in her ability with her blindness; when Lee was younger, she put bells on his slippers when he started walking,” Eric said.
“The funny part was that Lee was more clever than his mom and would take the slippers off to get away from her.”
Apart from being an avid dancer, Joan also loved to be in the garden and would sweep the driveway, even after the gardener had done the job.
“She swept after him and joked that on the day she died she wanted a broom placed on her coffin, which we did,” Eric added.
Joan’s funeral service was held on March 19, in the Northfield Methodist Church, where the couple were active members. She is survived by her husband and two sons.
