Joyce Shearer (Van Hartesvelt)

To work with youth is to shape the face of the future. Through raising her own children and her work with the youth of the First United Methodist Church, Joyce new knew the importance of love and compassion for youth, for all people and for all life. She lived through her faith and put her family at the center of her life.

The year 1933 was a time of beginnings and change. The torturous reign of the Nazi’s throughout Europe began with Adolf Hitler becoming the chancellor of Germany. Later in the year Germany and Japan both pulled out of the League of Nations; a sign of the increasing gap between them and the rest of the world. Here in the United States we inaugurated our 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, repealed constitutional prohibition, and our new president launched his “New Deal.” For Harm and Gertrude Smith of Kalamazoo, they saw their family grow by one more in 1933. On February 21st of the year, their daughter Joyce was born as their fourth child.

Joyce spent the first eight years of her life growing up in Kalamazoo until her family moved to Royal Oak where her father started a machine shop. She was one of eight children total, four boys and four girls. Joyce attended the Royal Oak school district and went on to graduate from the Royal Oak high school. However, when she was younger she was afflicted with the Scarlet fever. She spent her illness quarantined in a room where no one was allowed to enter. The couple of people who did riskily enter, did so to pack her in ice so as to keep her temperature down throughout the night. Joyce was expected to die from the fever but made it through by using the first of her nine lives. Her family joked that she had “nine lives” in response to a series of other experiences she had endured throughout her life.

After high school graduation, Joyce went to work at Beaumont Hospital as a pharmacy tech for a year and then continued her education at Adrian College to get her “MRS” Degree. She met her future husband at Adrian and was thus teased by her family about the degree she obtained there. Joyce and Ed Van Hartesvelt dated for two years and knew that they had found the person they could love till death did them part. They were married on Wednesday, June 1st, 1955. They shared the joy of marriage on the first of June just as three previous generations of Ed’s family had.

Their marriage was one year prior to Ed’s graduation from undergraduate study in 1956. After teaching for a year, he continued on to get his Master’s degree from the University of Michigan and they moved to Ann Arbor. They spent a summer with Ed’s parents in Fennville, which ended up drawing them back to the west side of the state. Ed was offered a job at the Zeeland public schools to teach English, History, and Driver’s Ed, he took it, and the family moved to Holland. Joyce was a stay-at-home mom to lovingly take care of their three children, Dennis, Dave, and Shari. Joyce and her family were very active in the First United Methodist Church and she took a special interest with involving her children with their youth group. As husband and wife, Ed and Joyce celebrated their marriage every year with an annual honeymoon where they would get away leaving their kids at home with Grandma and Grandpa.

In 1970, their family suffered the great loss of Ed passing away. Joyce was left to raise their three children on her own. With his passing however, rather than becoming angry and indignant with God, Joyce became closer and increased her faith in his sustaining love and became even more active in her church. Their children attended school at the West Ottawa school district and the summer after Ed died, Joyce, her sister-in-law Jane, and their three children took a memorable trip to our nations capital and throughout the years made many visits down to their relatives in Florida.

Joyce’s kids all went to college and Dave enlisted in the Navy. She began working in 1976 as nurse’s aid for the Haven Park and Meadowbrook (Resthaven) Nursing Homes. Three years later she switched jobs and became the office manager for the Bay Haven Marina until she was married to her second husband. Joyce found a companion in Cedric Shearer and they were married on December 26, 1982. They found much joy in traveling and boating together. Enjoying trips down south every winter and memorable adventures to Maine and across the globe to Israel. However, Joyce was widowed for a second time by Cedric’s death in 1991, one day after their anniversary.

After his death, Joyce would remain single and lived on her own in Holland. She visited her son Dave in California a couple of times and enjoyed an extended trip to Mexico and Las Vegas. Joyce enjoyed animals and would feed the squirrels and birds and raised cats of her own. She adopted a cat, she named Stinker, her daughter Shari had found at her office and told her mother about.

Joyce was QVC crazy. Her family loved to joke about her having every size box available from QVC if there was ever a need for them. She loved politics and was very vocal about her love. Her “steel trap mind” endured all the way up to the end. At her surprise seventieth birthday party thrown by her family, she was simply thrilled and shared her excitement with a smile from ear to her.

This past January, Joyce survived a severe stroke and suffered through related health ramifications from then on. She and her only living sibling, Charlot became very close and talked often. Her sister-in-law, Donna Wiegerink, spent valuable time with her and the family. At the time of her death she was surrounded by those who loved her. After talking a little and singing a little, Joyce was sent off from this world to the next with the singing of Amazing Grace one last time with her family.

Her life here on earth has ended, but she is not gone. Joyce Van Hartesvelt Shearer, now at home with her Lord, will live on in the hearts and memories of her family and all who loved her. The family thanks Resthaven Care Center for their comfort, personal care and support of Joyce.

Joyce (Van Hartesvelt) Shearer died peacefully surrounded by her family on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Ed Van Hartesvelt, and her second husband, Cedric Shearer. Joyce’s family includes Dennis Van Hartesvelt, David and Evangeline Van Hartesvelt, and Shari Van Hartesvelt; 6 Grandchildren, Heidi, Brandie, Andrew, Duane, Anthony, and Angela; 3 Great Grandchildren, Julian, Amber, and Alexia; Sister, Charlot Spears; Brothers and sister-in-law, Albert and Donna Wiegerink, Jane VanDenBerg, and Richard Van Hartesvelt and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Friends may visit with Joyce’s family on Friday, March 4, 2005 from 7 to 9 PM at the Northwood Chapel of the Dykstra Life Story Funeral Homes located at 295 Douglas Ave. A Life Story service will be held on Saturday, March 5, 2005 at 11:00AM at the First United Methodist Church, Holland. The Rev. William Dobbs will be officiating. Joyce will be buried in Pilgrim Home Cemetery. Please visit Joyce’s personal memory page at www.lifestorynet.com where you can share a memory, send flowers, or make a memorial contribution to the First United Methodist Church Youth Group.