Joan Margaret Veale · 15/11/2011 09:21 pm by Bron
Joan was born in 1926 to middle aged parents in Leicester England. Even though she was an only child, she had a happy childhood and spent many happy holidays at seaside resorts with her parents and cousins.
Joan loved every aspect of school, studied Shakespeare and was involved in drama and for a short time she was a member of the Women’s Royal Air Force. In 1945, when she was 19 she met Dickson Veale, a handsome Australian airforce pilot at a local dance and after a whirlwind courtship, they married and soon departed for Australian shores, leaving her bereft parents wishing she could have married someone more local. At the close of World War 2 Dickson returned to Australia ahead of Joan, who followed on a bridal ship, the SS Orbita, arriving in Fremantle some months later. They moved in directly with Dickson’s parents where they resided for the next 3 years. Over the ensuing years Joan formed a strong bond and lasting friendship with Dick’s three brothers and their wives. When the couple finally moved into their newly built house at Canning Bridge in 1948, the three children, Philip, Judy and Susan followed, and life was nicely settled for a while.
In 1953 Dick received a promotion in his job, and the family moved to Geraldton where they spent 10 happy years and made lifelong friends.
On their return to Perth in 1964, Joan commenced work with the Main Roads Department in the Statistics Branch. The main reason for her obtaining this job was to finance an extended overseas holiday to visit her parents. She loved her job at the Main Roads and came to know the name and details of every street, road, and cul de sac in the Perth region without ever needing to look at a map. After their extended overseas holiday Joan was bitten by the travel bug and both she and Dick had many wonderful holidays, both in Australia and abroad.
Joan was always very independent. When Dick sadly passed away in 1995, she took it upon herself to sell up and move into Parklands Retirement Village where she lived out the rest of life, getting involved in aspects of village life and enjoying a close relationship with her neighbours in “Paradise Road” as they liked to call their little street.
There are many words to describe Joan, she was intelligent, clever, knowledgeable. She had an inquisitive mind and abided by the three principles of “truth, proof and evidence”, and it was never too much trouble to look up a reference book, atlas, dictionary or encyclopedia to get the correct facts or figures. She never took anything on face value and paid no heed to gossip.
She had a love of the English language and the spoken word and deplored bad grammar and spelling errors. She was horrified when her children developed a broad Australian accent and would often threaten them with elocution lessons if they didn’t sharpen up but to no avail.
She was a tough Scrabble opponent, and a crossword fanatic. She could complete the LB cryptic crossword in the Sunday Times in 10 minutes flat.
Even though Joan was quite shy about playing the piano in public, she was an accomplished pianist and won several awards for solo stage recitals in her younger days. During the time the family lived in Geraldton, she played the organ for the Presbyterian Church every Sunday, dragging her 3 unwilling children along every week. Sometimes she was called upon to give a tribe of neighbouring children a ride to church, there were about 7 or 8 of them and if they all decided to come, there would be 11 kids piled into the old Vanguard. It never seemed to phase Joan, but her 3 kids would be peeved at being packed in like sardines! Dickson kept well away from these Sunday excursions, and in the summertime would go out in his dinghy with a couple of craypots and the family would come home to a lunch of crayfish and salad.
Joan also gave piano lessons to several regular students during her years in Geraldton. She tried teaching each of her own children, but disappointingly not one of them took it seriously, so she booked them into the convent for lessons after school where they were taught by the strict and scary nuns. This worked to a degree as they all learnt to their various stages, but they never carried on with it once exams were over. This must have been most disappointing to Joan, but luckily the musical gene came through to some of the grandchildren and she was as proud as punch of their musical abilities.
As a young mother in the 50’s Joan was a forward thinker and quite adventurous. She took a woodwork class at night school where she completed an exquisite 2 storey dolls house, a buffet cupboard and a coffee table which all had pride of place in the house for years. She was always up to date with modern appliances and was the first person in the neighbourhood to purchase a Sunbeam Electric Frypan, thus embarking on a culinary adventure for the family. She cooked everything from roast dinners to fruitcakes in that thing. While the neighbours were eating stewed chops for tea, Joan was dishing up Fried Rice with crayfish, Sukiyaki, or Sweet and Sour Pork, which was almost unheard of in those days. The kids were all proud of her and as a result have become ardent “foodies”.
She was a fabulous knitter and an excellent dressmaker, and when she traded her Singer Treadle machine for a fancy electric German one with all the embroidery cams, there was no stopping her. Both Judy and Susan recall how at primary school, the teachers would often comment on their gorgeous dresses, and on a couple of occasions, a note went home with them from a teacher, not about their schoolwork, but about the pretty scalloped hem on Susan’s dress, or the beautiful embroidered flower on Judy’s bodice.
Joan loved sport. She played tennis for a long time and was a long standing member of the Melville Glades Golf Course where she continued to play into her late 70’s. She never could take to Aussie Rules though, and always barracked for England in the cricket which sometimes annoyed one of the kids who felt her allegiance by now should be to her adopted country.
She was a competent and safe driver, as well as an excellent backseat driver! She was driving her car until the day she died. She was also an astute map reader, very good navigator and extremely observant. Dick was very fond of telling the kids “Your mother has eyes in the back of her head!”
She loved taking photos which probably began when she first came to Australia. Over the years, she would make a home movie and take many pictures of the children and the landscape to send back to her parents, who sadly never came out to visit. She never went anywhere without her camera and even in her last days was seen snapping photos of her great grandchildren.
Her passion for travel was admirable and she enjoyed many a trip to fabulous places. Sometimes she was joined by her sister in law, coincidently also named Joan Margaret Veale. This would cause much confusion with the booking agents and usually a huge mix up on their arrival at their hotel, causing the two Joans some angst and much to talk about.
Never one to be left behind, Joan was up to the minute with technology, she bought herself a laptop, learnt the lingo, scanned, printed, googled, uploaded photos to a photo sharing site, and Skyped her family. She recently purchased an iPad and amused herself for hours playing word games. She made her family proud.
Joan was passionate about opera and the theatre and always first in line for tickets.
She looked forward to playing Bridge every Saturday with a special circle of friends.
She loved her family, was generous to her children, and always supportive, no matter what, and for that they are eternally grateful.
Her approach to life was an inspiration. She was a brave and courageous woman who never complained about anything, least of all her fate. She had a full and happy life for which she was thankful. We loved her and we will all miss her dearly.
