Gladys 'Joyce' James

She passed away peacefully on the evening of January 11th, 2025 after being in the hospital due to a serious fall.

Born Gladys Joy Graham in Gleichen, Alberta on September 6th, 1921 to parents Mary and George who were travelling from Ontario to settle in Calgary.  She was better known as Joyce; a loving nickname given to her by her father.  He called her “Joy’ce”, with two syllables, which she thought was just a cute way of pronouncing her name that she unknowingly adopted as her birth name for her entire life.  Joyce came from a large family, struggled through the Great Depression and WWII which moulded her into a resilient woman who knew how to appreciate what she had, making the best of it and most of all, the importance of family.

She married Gordon James in 1942 and had 3 children with a 16-year gap between eldest to youngest. Joyce lived in Calgary all of her life and had two hobbies that she enjoyed.  Sewing was her first passion and she worked as a seamstress and made most of her clothes during her life span.  Last but not least she loved to paint both watercolour and acrylic.  The majority of her paintings were flowers or scenes from nature.

She was a tea lover and often would drink hot tea while doing water colours.   Only problem is she often dipped her brush into her tea instead of the glass of water resulting in tea the palette of her current painting.  It obviously did no harm as she lived to be 103 years young.

Joyce was quiet and demure to strangers but if you really knew her, she was feisty, stubborn and funny.  She never wanted to be called a grandmother as that implied, she was old, instead she adopted the loving moniker of Nana when her grandchildren Alex and Sheldon arrived. 

She was predeceased by her full siblings: Rose, Harold, Lloyd, Grace, Pearl, Goldie and her half siblings William, Edward and Sylvina.  In addition, she lost her husband Gordon in 2007 and her son Reginald in 2022.

Joyce is survived by her son Rodney, her daughter Pamela (John), her grandsons Alex (Molly), Sheldon (Chelsea), as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Joyce will be fondly remembered by all that knew her, as she was a great source of love and “joy” in our lives.

A celebration of her life will be held later in the year as the warmth of spring and summer usher in the new growth of flowers of which she was so fond.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Gladys 'Joyce' James, please visit our floral store.