NEW LONDON, NH — Joyce Carolyn Ettenborough was born on March 24th, 1927 in Hackensack, New Jersey. At age 92 our beloved Mom went to bed happy and passed away peacefully on September 15th, 2019. She married the love of her life Raymond Joseph Ettenborough in 1947 on the 4th of July. Together they created their own fire-works and enjoyed 71 years of marriage, raising 4 children – Raymond, Joanne, Patricia and Peter. Collectively they produced 9 beautiful grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren that she adored. All of them learned early to call her Gorgeous Grandma or GG. Calling her Grandma was a mistake that was made only once.
She loved telling stories about growing up in Paramus, NJ and while visiting her Dad’s family in Hoboken, they would sometimes see Frank Sinatra hanging his clothes out to dry after he became famous. And, the story about how she answered a classified ad in the Jersey Record that promised “Big Profits” for packaging buttons. Soon thereafter our small home in NJ was filled with truckloads of shirt buttons where our mompreneur had a dozen part time moms packaging 1 million buttons a month. She was forever busy, she could knit blankets, sew quilts and weave wool rugs that would make LL Bean envious. She loved her light blue 57 Mustang convertible, road trips to Atlantic City, Lottery tickets, and Bingo with her gal pals. When she won (which was fairly often) she loved to share her “funny money” as she called it. And, she never forgot a name.
Moving to New Hampshire in 1971 Mom had to learn a whole new set of survival skills. The grocery store was no longer across the street, the next door neighbor was a long walk for a cup of sugar and if it was Moms turn to pick the kids up at King Ridge where you parked at the top of the mountain she quickly learned how to punch it to get her Subaru wagon to the top otherwise the kids were going to be there for a while. We somehow survived and it didn’t take long for the New Hampshire Live Free or Die lifestyle to become part of our families DNA. We will miss your happy hours at 5:00 in the sunroom, (red wine 2 ice cubes, not 1 and not 3 cubes always 2) watching the hummingbirds on the deck, celebrating the birth day and not the year, dinners at Applebee’s, and your incredible ability to remember every detail, every date all while enjoying the life’s simple pleasures like a bright red sunset. We will always love you Mom!
A celebration of Joyce’s life will be held at the Lake Sunapee Country Club from 1:00 to 3:00 on October 21st, 2019.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Jack Bryne Center for Palliative and Hospice Care, D-H /Geisel Office of Development, One Medical Center Drive, HB 7070, Lebanon, NH 03756.
To sign an online guestbook please visit www.chadwickfuneralservice.com.