My Mom, Joan
It has been nearly three months now since my mother's death on July 17, 2018. At birth, she was given the name, Beverly Joan (pronounced Jo Ann) and was born to H. Lloyd and Marguerite Pocock Stanley in Nokomis, Illinois on September 1, 1933. To my knowledge, mom was never called Beverly and she would be known by her middle name, Joan. Naming children is an "imperfect science" and is always done for personal preferences. (I am named after my dad, Joseph, but my parents shortened my middle name to simply Joe). It is still hard for me to write these words about mom's passing, but I know that this is the new normal and reality for my family and me. In these last years, I have been interviewing and recording some of my parents' memories. I'm writing an anecdotal history of our family's business. Joe's Auto Repair opened in December 1961 when I was just a ten-year old boy. It has been fun and now, therapeutic, to write about some of the rich experiences I...