Joyce Newman

March, 2018

Our dear friend and colleague Joyce Newman passed away suddenly last month. She had the flu. She had gone to the doctor that week. She was found by a neighbor who had come by to help her feed her cats. She was only 59.

Joyce was one of those people who made the world a little bit better, but you didn’t really know it. Her vocation was helping us at Parking Today, but her avocation was helping lost and abused animals, particularly cats. And she worked tirelessly and quietly on this project.

A few years ago, she had an idea to set up a nonprofit to achieve her goal and she did it. One day she came to me and asked if she could work four days instead of five, so she could devote more time for her animals. Over the years she has saved countless feline lives, rescuing them, caring for them, finding them good homes. 

Her love of animals didn’t stop with cats. There was one incident where she spent a ton of money at the vets to save a sick turtle. We couldn’t believe it. She found it routine. She took a lot of friendly abuse for that one. She didn’t care.

When we moved last fall, Joyce simply loved her new office. She said she could see the world outside. She needed that. If there was a rainstorm, or a lot of thunder and lightning, she had a huge smile on her face. She and her boyfriend liked to travel to Kansas and hunt tornados. 

We joked that Joyce did everything at PT no one else did. She was in charge of internet updates, which she did daily. She handled all our social functions including all the fun at PIE, the Temecula group, and our travel arrangements. She kept her eye on things like the calendar in the magazine, the dealer and installer list, updated the information from local, regional, and international parking groups, a thankless task. We could go on but we would leave many things out. Over the next few weeks, we will discover many more things Joyce did. “Why is there no water in the cabinet? Was there a deposit today? Who picks up the mail?”

Joyce was frightened when she started her nonprofit. She was afraid she might fail. But she did it anyway. She jumped into the arena. She got a little bloody, but she persevered. And succeeded. Had she lived, she would have asked her hours be reduced again this year. She liked working at PT, but she loved her animals.

Her passing will leave us each, in our own way, slightly diminished.

Goodbye, Joyce. You are missed

Your Friends at Parking Today.