Joy L. Cooper-VanAuken

We met at the Doctor's office this past year. I hadn't seen her in close to 30 years! Sitting across from her in the waiting room, I looked over and asked her if we had met before- she looked so familiar. She said her name and I told her yes we had met - I was doing Graduate work at UCSC and Joy taught me how to teach reading! She was very gracious and we had a short conversation about our careers. I told her I was on my 30th year teaching and then I thanked her in great detail for the...

Kapono and I are neighbors of Dick and Joy and, unfortunately, only have known them for less than two years. We could see from this carefully crafted, loving accounting of Joy's life that we missed a tremendous amount in not knowing her longer. What a "tough little cookie" she was, so fearless and so athletic. I'm sure that Dick was always proud to stand beside her. She and her family owned and lived in the house we now own at two different times and we had great conversations over wine...