Joyce Lenore Hulen

1950 - 2025

JOYCE LENORE HULEN

June 2, 1950 – October 8, 2025

Remembering my wife, Joyce

The Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

After a courageous battle with pulmonary fibrosis, Joyce left her spouse, family and friends on October 8. Joyce was born June 2, 1950, at St. Mary's Hospital, Long Beach, California to Hazel Axley Hulen, nee Hazel Warner Axley, and Eddie Taylor Hulen. At the time Mr. Hulen was employed as an oil field engineer. Sadly Joyce lost her daddy when she was only four. With few resources to sustain her and her mother, Mom had no choice but to leave Long Beach for Bakersfield to move in with her sister and aunt.

There she grew up as an only child among old people. Her mother, born in 1907, was already in middle age when Joyce was born. As she grew, Joyce was given many domestic responsibilities including grocery shopping on her way home from school. Her mother, who hated to drive, got her a learner's permit when she was 15 and a half and her full license on her 16th birthday.

As she was approaching adulthood she expressed interest in higher education with an abiding interest in architecture. Her mother said that was out of the question because of lack of financial resources. Quirks in the law involving public assistance were off the table because Hazel owned the house she inherited. She also owned her car outright as the initial car loan had a life insurance policy that, with the unexpected death of her father, paid off the car before the family had made their first payment. With mom working in clerical fields, Joyce took secretarial type training and developed a high level of skills in operating period calculating equipment and a fast typing rate.

At some point Joyce became employed at Kern General Hospital, today Kern Medical, and there became acquainted with pathologist Dr. William Schmalhorst. For the next 40 years Joyce followed him ultimately to Physicians Automated Lab, founded by him and a partner.

After Dr. Schmalhorst retired she stayed on for a while before taking a buy-out as new foreign owners having their own policies and agendas sought to hire their own people.

Over the years her civic engagement included being active in the Bakersfield Community Theater mainly in costuming and occasionally filling in as needed as a bit actor. She was active in the Junior League of Bakersfield, in later years, continuing on as a Sustainer. She also served a term as the president of the Bakersfield Community House. She became quite skilled at both knitting and quilting, leaving behind a significant number of beautiful well-crafted quilts.

As a member of the Bakersfield High School Class of 1968 she was involved in administrative work for her high school class reunion committee. Once a Driller, always a Driller! She also used her secretarial skills on behalf of the local chapter of the Sierra Club in managing affairs of the chapter area group, particularly the monthly public First Saturday program breakfast meetings at Hodel's Country Dining where we host interesting guest speakers.

We met in the late 1980s at a Macintosh computer user group meeting. What she saw in me was someone with potential that could use a little cleaning up and civilizing. We were both regular attendees of the annual MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. When realizing there were three of us who were attending my friend Mike Stramler rented a Lincoln Town Car and Mike drove.

There we connected and started dating and after I found myself spending more time at her home than mine, we decided to make it legal. About that time I was planning on going on one of the local Harley Owners Group runs, we decided to combine the event with marriage in Nevada.

This was a first marriage for both of us. I had not yet turned 50 and Joyce was 44 when, on March 19, 1995, we took our vows. Our paths in life had woven in and out of the same places, missing each other by moments and inches until our common interest in the cutting edge technology of the Apple Macintosh computer brought us together.

Joyce did the paperwork with the Nye County clerk and, discovered that the county seat wasn't the big city of Las Vegas but the small town of Tonopah that was home to the Mizpah Hotel, a place with much interesting history. She arranged for a judge to perform the rites and got three rooms on the fifth floor with the corner room where the ceremony took place. The house comped us a bottle of champagne and a circuit court judge, who is a member of the Piute Nation, performed the ceremony. He blessed us with a Piute blessing.

We had written our own vows and, for the rest of her life we took them seriously. At our respective places of employment we devoted ourselves to the goals and purposes of our employers. On our own time, we worked at life together, traveled, attended and supported cultural events. We gave of our time for causes that seek to improve life in our community and, as such, our lives together were full and productive.

But then came cancer. Her photo has been routinely featured with many other cancer survivors in Bakersfield Life Magazine, celebrating breast cancer awareness month. Unfortunately, in Joyce's case, the decision to use radiation to kill off the cancer also set her lungs on developing pulmonary fibrosis. Her lungs were already compromised by damage from growing up in a family of smokers who gave not a thought to the damage second hand smoke can cause. In fact, as she approached adulthood, they all urged her to join them in this practice which she adamantly refused to do.

But in the end, developing pneumonia in both lungs, her body couldn't take it anymore and, over a few short days, health left her.

Among the things that sustained Joyce as long as they did were recent advances in medical technology. My late mother suffered at the end with pulmonary failure. The equipment and pharmaceuticals they had available fifteen years ago weren't nearly as effective and available as now. Much of the equipment and pharmaceuticals available now would have been a real benefit to Mother in reducing her pain and suffering.

That speaks to the importance of federal money being well-spent on research at our institutions of higher learning. Research focused on theory is the foundation of development of advanced medicine and technology, all of which helped prolong Joyce's life and comfort. Such research should not be seen as pawns in games of politics and greed.

Joyce truly filled a missing space in my life – a space I didn't know was there until I met her and we began a life together. We got 30 years and were both looking forward to more, leaving behind many uncompleted plans.

We will remember Joyce on Sunday, November 16, 4 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 3700 Union Avenue.

www.bakersfield.com/obits