My mother, Joan Margaret Hyde Zapor was born on August 16, 1928, one of 10 children of George and Euphrasia O’Connor Hyde in Emmett, MI, an Irish-Catholic farm town 60 long miles from the “Motor City” of Detroit.

Typical of the conservsative farming society, mother attended 12 years of Catholic school, 10 years in Emmett and the last 2 years in the nearby city of Port Huron.

After graduating, she followed the only career path for a young woman in a region dominated by the booming auto industry. She worked for 5 years filing orders for auto parts at a Chrysler plant in Marysville, MI.

In the 1950s mom was offered a clerical position in the Pentagon for the US Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG). She lived in an all girls boarding house attached to the Washington, DC Roman Catholic cathedral. She greatly enjoyed this opportunity to move from small town Michigan to live and work in the nation’s capitol. Later in her life she would remember this experience as one best times of her life, remaining in touch with some of her housemates for the rest of her life.

This experience in Washington was just one example of how mother loved to travel and truly experience the world. While most of her siblings spent their entire lives in Michigan, mother traveled extensively around the U.S. as well as Europe, visiting Rome and Paris among other places. After her death, many of her nieces remembered her for her free and adventurous spirit.

Upon returning to Michigan in the mid 1950s, mom settled in Detroit, rooming with her younger sister Barbara at her aunt Carrie’s house in the city. During this time my mother and my Aunt Barbara were favorite aunts to their other older sister Mary’s family.

For several years mom worked as an executive assistant for a jeweler, assisting in the company’s marketing and advertising. She later worked at Detroit Edison, where she would contnue working for the remainder of her professional career. She quit work, supposedly by choice, after marrying my dad in 1969. Since then she was the traditional stay-at-home housewife and mother, as I was born in 1972.

A devout Catholic throughout her life, in 1986 mother extended her commitment to the Church as a Eurcharistic Minister, serving communion at Sunday and weekday masses at Our Lady Of Hope, in Port Orange, FL. She would continue serving this ministry for 20 years, until 2006.

Following my father’s death in 2007, mom continued living on her own with the help of her beloved friends, especially Amy Hartsel and Marlene Greene. In March 2009, she agreed to move into an assisted living facility near my house which was an hour’s drive from Port Orange.

In an eerie coincidence, Amy Hartsel, who had long been mom’s best friend, suffered a major stroke shortly after mom decided to move. She then passed away the same day I completed the admissions paperwork for the ALF.