Leone-Joyce Sugars

Joyce Sugars (Leone-Joyce, nee Beebe), 'Mum,' born on April 5, 1925 in Alix, Alberta, passed on September 20, 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the age of 99 years.

While Mum didn't get the Queen's letter for her hundredth birthday, she enjoyed a long and remarkably healthy life to age 99 – as it happens, looking very much like the Queen.

Mum ended up being one of the 'dear old ladies' of Oyama, BC, living into their late nineties and beyond. A hilly three-mile trek to school and back, an abundance of fresh air, pure spring water, home-grown veggies and fruits (raspberries being her favorite) set a strong foundation for lifelong health and vitality.

In the small Okanagan community, Mum ran with a good-natured gang of free-range kids, Arnold Trewitt and Dossie Stephens, among them. None had two dimes to rub together, but they enjoyed the riches of innocent times - exploring the golden pyramid hills above Oyama, sliding down irrigation flumes, playing in fragrant orchards and walking the railways down to the lake.

In their tiny one-room school, Mum was smart, small, and excelled in track and field. She learned to read early at age four, a passion she continued for life. She often found joy and refuge in the pages of Nevil Shute, Dick Francis, Pearl Buck - and proudly passed the reading bug onto her granddaughter Jill, after many trips to the library together.

Through the great depression, Mum helped her mum and dad with chores, picking cherries and apples. The war hit the community hard – families lost sons, and beloved Japanese friends were caught up in it all. She never forgot them and kept their names and stories alive for her entire life.

Mum made her way to Vancouver to train at the St. Paul's Hospital School of Nursing under the watch of the nuns. She was bright and good at it, earning the trust and respect of her employers Drs. David and Josephine Malleck.

There, she bumped into Ed Sugars on the street. They started seeing each other, and frequenting Vancouver jazz clubs - the Palladium, the Cave - even meeting Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong.

They married in 1952, eventually building a house in Deep Cove on Baycrest for their growing crew - Don, Geoff, Steve, and Jenny, a lively family she never had in childhood. Those years with her 'little tads' were some of her best, her greatest joy.

She and Dad arranged for fun family holidays, birthdays, games, books, and lessons to keep us all busy and curious - and didn't put up with any sibling rivalry. Mum's greatest pride in life was that her kids got along so well and became the greatest of friends.

Family adventures took us from the coast to Kamloops, Summerland, Penn State and eventually Calgary, for many years while Dad taught at U of C.

In retirement, Mum settled back in BC at the Shuswap, in the cabin she loved among the cedars, overlooking the lake. She loved that place, and so did we. At the lake, she put her artistic and straight eye to work, decorating, renovating, taking hundreds of photos and videos and making beautiful family quilts.

Eventually the road led her back to Tsawassen and Point Roberts for an ocean-front retreat and to be closer to family.

Mum was always on the hunt a halfways-decent coffee, and would never turn down a cold beer. She enjoyed a good laugh, thought Keith Richards was hilarious, and loved Bon Jovi. She was always up for small adventures, and we shared many family get-togethers, road trips, travels, concerts, and outings.

Highly intelligent, Mum was an ace at history, grammar and trivia, winning at Jeopardy even into her late 90s.

She was interested in so many things – politics, decorating, music (Nat, Il Divo), art (conversations with Robert Bateman). Gardening: wild grasses, dogwood, pansies, pink dogwood, hollyhocks, mountain ash, Alberta rose, long grasses. Critters: squirrels, chipmunks, hummingbirds, quail.

She had a passion for sports, especially tennis, track & field, skating. She couldn't wait for the Olympics and and felt they represented the good in the world.

Proud of her Swedish roots, Mum was also fiercely Canadian, and delighted in cheering on the young athletes of our country: Andre in Track, Felix and Dennis in tennis, Mark in snowboarding, Mike in golf. "Holy jumped up!" she'd say, when they went on break records.

Life was not always kind, and despite rocky paths, Mum was remarkably resilient and fiercely independent. There was much good in Mum that she'd want to be remembered for. She was innately kind, decent and honest, with a great sense of fairness, and tried to do the right things. Those are gifts she left with us.

Above all, through all years, she loved her family. Her kids, grandkids and good friends were everything. In later struggles with dementia, she hung onto family memories and interactions. Those never faded. Her beautiful smile would light up when hearing her kids and grandkids' names, and voices. That was her heart.

"Lucky Lucky lucky," she'd say, about her family.

In those last gentle years we switched roles, children taking care of parent. She finally let her guard down, allowing us to care for her, and leaving us an unexpected gift of family that surely completed her circle of life and spirit.

Leone Joyce Sugars (nee Beebe) was predeceased by Edmund Sugars (2004). She is remembered and missed by her boys Don, Geoff (Diane), Steve (Cheryl); daughter Jenny (Rick); grandkids Jill, Molly, Max, Ricky, T.J. (Haley), Trina; great grandkids, Lennox, Cruz, Hudson, Charley, Sailor, Rosie, Sophia, and Austin; good friends Lorna Shibley and Cynthia McEwan. Special mention, Leslie-Mary, Lindsay, Tim, Colin and Marta.

Rest easy mum. You are loved, and we'll always be together.