Joyce C. Lewinski

A Million Sunsets

"Joycie" Charlene Svejda Lewinski crossed her final finish line in the early morning hours of February 20, 2026 at the House of the Dove in Marshfield, WI, just hours before she was registered to start the Kortelopet Ski Race in Hayward, WI. She was 78 years old.

Joycie was born May 30, 1947 to Emil Svejda and Winifred Hickner in Phillips, WI. Her childhood was a tough one, by today's standards, filled with farm work, snowy walks to school, and harsh winters. And she loved every minute of it, treasuring life on the farm with her brothers and sisters. She would not have traded her childhood memories for anything else on earth; they defined her.

When Joycie was five years old, she tagged along with her mother in the hospital where Winifred worked and discovered her life's calling: to care for the sick and injured. After high school, she entered nurse's training in Marshfield and graduated in 1968, and for the next 43 years, she did her life's work as a nurse. She worked in a variety of roles, and through it all, she never lost her passion for patient care, right up to her retirement in 2011.

Joycie met her husband Tom in Marshfield, and the two married on May 11, 1968. Together, over the next 51 years, they raised two headstrong boys, built a home, and cultivated a life built on hard work, honesty, and laughter. In later years, Joycie and Tom enjoyed traveling together, visiting various European countries and other locales, though Joycie found her true spiritual home in Sedona, Arizona. There, after retirement, they spent several winters hiking the red rock and enjoying desert sunsets. As special as the southwest was to her, it was never strong enough to permanently draw her away from her real home, on Bullhead Lake in Minocqua, Wisconsin. Joycie loved being on the water in her kayak, often sitting in the middle of the lake, watching the sun rise or set, enjoying the baby loons and their mother who inhabited the lake each summer.

Outside of nursing circles, Joycie was most widely known for her passion for running and cross country skiing. Over the course of four decades, she completed 28 marathons and countless 5K, 10K, and Half Marathons, never not finishing a race she started. She considered her crowning achievement in running to be qualifying for and competing in the Boston Marathon. Her true love, however, was competing in the American Birkebeiner Ski Race in Hayward, Wisconsin. When she began cross country skiing in her mid-thirties, she was astounded to learn that this ski race of international acclaim was held each year in northern Wisconsin. Without hesitation, she signed up after her very first year of skiing. Doing most of her "training" in her backyard that first year, Joycie completed the 34 mile race in seven and a half hours and never looked back. She went on to complete 29 more Birkies, earning membership in the prestigious "Birchleggings Club", her proudest accomplishment.

Joycie was not bestowed with a classic endurance athlete's physical build, but what she lacked in athleticism, she overcame through an uncommon degree of resolve and grit that became her trademark. Once, after finishing a Birkie in which her foot pained her the entire race, she discovered the source of pain to be a cat toy that her beloved cat had unknowingly hid in the toe of her ski boot before the race. Stopping mid-race to investigate the source of her discomfort would have cost her precious minutes on the clock, so she labored on. For 34 miles. That was Joycie.

That gritty determination never left her, even when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in August 2025. She knew her time was short and did not waste one minute of it. There were still hikes and bike rides and paddles to be done, and one more trip to Sedona to see the red rock for the last time. And, in December 2025, after she decided to stop chemotherapy– a decision that was not particularly popular among some friends and family members– she told her son Chris that maybe, after she was gone, he could explain to everyone why she stopped treatment that might grant her some additional time. As she explained to Chris: "Time? Time for what? Another sunset? I've seen a million sunsets, and I've loved every one of them. I don't need to see another sunset. I want to live out my last days as best as I can, not sick on chemo, hoping for 'more time'".

Joycie was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Tom and her son Todd. She is survived by all of her siblings- Bill Svejda, Sue Vollmar, Lois Greene, John Svejda, David Svejda, and Jim Svejda, as well as her son Chris Lewinski, grandson Hunter Lewinski, granddaughter-in-law Annalise Keaton, and daughter-in-law Jill Lewinski.

Chris and Hunter would like to thank the extraordinary staff at the House of the Dove for their compassionate care of Joycie in her final days in her "condo" in Marshfield, as well as her two best friends, Jill Sternitzky and Barb Lee, who accompanied Joycie in her final hours and helped guide her on to the next world.

A memorial service for Joycie will be held on March 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM at Faith Evangelical Free Church, 9035 Blumenstein Road, Woodruff, WI. Visitation will commence at 10:00 AM, with lunch to follow the service.

In lieu of flowers, just do what Joycie wanted for everyone: to leave your cellphone, get outside, move your body and love nature.