Evelyn Joyce Harvey, known to all as Joyce, had her 95th birthday just weeks before her death on June 3.
Her daughter Gillian writes:
"Mum came to Haddenham in 1945, having been born and brought up in the Suffolk village of Blythburgh (near Southwold) where her parents ran the post office.
"After a two-year teacher training course in Norwich and her probationary year of teaching juniors in Haddenham, she had intended to return to Suffolk. However, she met a local chap called Martin Harvey when he was demobbed from the army, and the rest (as they say) is history! Together they ran a printing business from their home in Churchway which provided a vital service to many other small local businesses in the days before home computers. They continued to run the business until 1975, when Martin died.
"Mum had spells of teaching in each of the two village primary schools, and was involved with both the Baptist and the Anglican churches in Haddenham. She also taught in Sunday school, was active in youth work, ran confirmation classes and home groups, and arranged flowers. She started the weekly Women's Fellowship, which later became St Mary's Fellowship and is now The Monday Club, carried out numerous home visits (to sick and bereaved people, and in order to welcome newcomers), and took home communion to the housebound. She served as a church warden for many years, edited St Mary's Church Parish Magazine, and, after training as a lay reader, led services and preached in all four churches that were then part of the Haddenham benefice.
"As her health began to deteriorate she focussed more of her energy on the smaller congregation at the midweek communion services held in the Catholic Church.
"In 2014 she moved into the Haddenham Abbeyfield, and just under a year later to Hempton Field Nursing Home in Chinnor.
"A small funeral service, led by David Harvey, one of Joyce's two sons, who is a licensed lay minister, was held at Watermead Crematorium on June 23. Members of the family unable to attend, as well as many others in the Haddenham area and beyond whose lives Joyce had touched, were able to watch a live stream of the service on their laptops, tablets or computers."
Instead of music as people entered the chapel, they were greeted by the sound of birdsong – as Joyce loved listening to the garden birds. Gillian ended her tribute by saying "The family hopes to have a memorial service at St Mary's Church once the current restrictions are fully lifted."
In addition to two sons and a daughter, Joyce leaves two granddaughters and five great-grandchildren.
