Obituary: Joy Louise Forrest (nee Leatham)
Born: December 15, 1959
Died: December 18, 2023
THE Mansfield Showgrounds was the venue for an outpouring of love and acknowledgement for Barjarg’s Joy Forrest.
Up to 600 people celebrated Joy’s life on Saturday afternoon, January 6, encapsulating a life well-lived despite health challenges over the years.
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Down to earth and very much her own person, Joy would have loved the send-off that family and friends created in her honour turning the rustic Ed Harris Pavilion into a place of fun and an opportunity to share special memories with each other and show support to her husband Bill Forrest and wider family.
Long-time friend of Bill and Joy Forrest, Julie Aldous provided a welcome which included an explanation of why the Mansfield Showgrounds was such an appropriate place.
One of the wonderful and successful ideas Joy had was to hold a chook auction at the showground.
As Bill says, “She was always thinking about something…and next minute I’d be organised to do something.
"She was a dead ringer for her mother in getting people to do things….a magnet for attracting people to be involved.”
Joy organised the chook auction to raise money initially for the Austin Hospital where she received her first kidney and then for the Mansfield Hospital to raise money for a dialysis machine.
Her husband Bill was going through a purple patch at the gun club and Joy co-opted all his winnings – all sorts of prizes – for the raffle.
Billie Leatham continued with a description of how the day was planned, “Welcome to what we think you’ll find very different from any end-of-life event you’ve attended before.
“Today is the result of Bill and Joy’s nieces’ manic imaginings of what would NOT equal a funeral.
“The working title: FUNeral, a title, for obvious reasons not shared publicly, until today… in her memory,” said Billie.
“Joy could think of nothing worse than an over-the-top weeping and wailing service delivered by a man of the cloth who didn’t know her from Eve.
“Joy did not want some solemn occasion; she didn’t want anything really; just a timely and brief, no nonsense goodbye with a few who loved her best in attendance”.
“Not her exact words, but as you’d expect, she didn’t want a fuss”, said Billie.
“That’s pretty special, and I mention it because Joy Leatham Forrest was a very funny story-teller and one of the naughtiest girls I’ve ever known.
“She made us laugh til we cried and many times these stories were about you, Bill (in Portugal asking for milk).”
Georgia wrote the following eulogy which was read out by Billie which said retelling the story of Joy’s s whole life would be an impossible feat.
“This is the thoughts of a few nieces, who couldn’t help but retell some of our favourite stories about our Joy.
“Joy grew up in Bridge Creek, the fourth born for Nancy and Corrie; she was a little sister to three older brothers, Ken, Bob and Dick.
“Being a little sister wasn’t always easy, Joy was unable to out-run, out-hide or out-climb her mother when it came to Sunday school.
“She and Nancy would often spend the last few spare moments before church driving up and down the driveway calling for the boys who were hiding,” said Georgia.
“Corrie built Joy a cubby house in a great big cable spool.
"Ever the innovator, Joy christened it ‘Google Gang’ and Nancy used to force the boys to go inside to play with Joy.
“Nancy would assure the boys that they were ‘so lucky to have a little sister’.
"They didn't always agree as they sat in Google Gang drinking tiny cups of water and grass."
Georgia described how Joy met Bill at Brad and Cathy Park’s wedding.
One year later the pair was married in Mansfield where “Joy danced with every single person at her wedding”.
“If you’re ready for a good laugh, at Bills expense, ask him about the confetti in the Land Cruiser debacle on the way to their American honeymoon.
"Nobody tells it quite like Bill.
"Throughout their marriage, Joy and Bill went on trips all over Australia and the world,” Georgia said.
They travelled all over the territory, the Kimberly and down the west coast.
Joy walked and rode bikes in New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Tonga Islands.
In the 1980s, Joy, Bill and Kylie bought the Mansfield milk bar and transformed it into the Roundabout Milk Bar.
"If she wasn’t already the coolest aunty, she definitely was now.
"Rose recalls unlimited access to lollies and dim sims, and having serious bragging rights at school - 'my aunty owns a lolly shop, what does yours do?'.
“It wasn’t always smooth sailing at the roundabout, one particular Sunday, Kylie though she’d treat herself to a day off.
"Joy and her sister-in-law Jeanne were running the roundabout and Joy had assured Kylie that she would handle the usual Sunday rotisserie chickens.
"This was a particularly messy job that Joy usually refused to do.
“Towards the end of the day Kylie popped into the roundabout and asked Jeanne ‘how are the chickens going?’.
"The colour drained from Jeanne’s face as she said quietly ‘Kylie, don’t go out the back, and whatever you do, don’t mention the chickens’.
"Kylie, naturally, went straight out the back.
“There, she was greeted with a warzone of 20 half cooked rotisserie chickens, some still speared on the spit, some laying on the ground and some hanging from the mesh fence in the backyard, “ according to Georgia.
“Joy, who had apparently become quite frustrated during the process, had opened the oven and flung them out as far as she could.
“Joy’s latest business endeavour was her coffee van, while entering the modern era of PayPass, Joy showed her generosity by accidently paying for every single coffee herself, for days, by leaving her own bank card in the back of her phone.
"While Joy was a business lady, she was, at heart, an artist like her mother.
"She sewed, snuck filthy limericks into floral still lifes, painted, gardened, doodled, and threw herself into pottery.
"Joy was a very special aunt and great aunt.
"She would send you home with shoeboxes full of ducklings without asking your parents.
"She would sew you wild clothing with secret buttons and pockets, and she was known to accidently hire inappropriate movies for movie night.
"While we would have liked her to live forever, she knew what she wanted from her life and what she was willing to endure."
Joy Louise Forrest, dearly loved wife of Bill, passed away peacefully on December 18, aged 64, at the Mansfield District Hospital.
Both the Forrest and Leatham families would like to thank mourners for their support on January 6.
Bill said, “I would like to thank the hospital staff and Dr Will Twycross at Mansfield Hospital.
He also thanked the nurses and doctors at St Vincent’s Private, Dr Dan Chubb, and Edwina and Chris Stevenson.
“I would like to thank Billie Leatham and Bonnie Leatham and their helpers for setting up the show pavilion and the clean up as well.”
He thanked, “The Mansfield A & P Society, Megan Knapp, the Mansfield Rotary Club, and all the others who helped to make it such a special day for Joy”.
