JOCELYN SANFORD

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JOCELYN SANFORD Jocelyn Sanford died in hospital in Vancouver on August 6, 2015 at the age of 87. She is survived by her five children, Kathy, Mike, Pam, Lois and Jim, nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her husband Robert died in 2005. In 1968, at the age of 40, Jocelyn and her family left their hometown of Vancouver and spent two years in Edmonton before moving on to Winnipeg. In Edmonton, she worked in the office of the Single Men's Hostel, a homeless shelter. In Winnipeg, she worked for the Fort Garry Police until amalgamation in 1974, then with the Manitoba Provincial Court Office as a magistrate. Although it was often demanding she always enjoyed her work, and loved meeting new and interesting people. After retirement in 1988, Jocelyn and her husband Bob spent a year in China teaching. They returned six years later for another year. She went to Tiananmen Square in early June, 1989 (shortly before the massacre), and met some of her students there. Jocelyn found China invigorating, and happily rose to the challenge of negotiating Chinese bureaucracy. Jocelyn and Bob did much travelling after retirement. Jocelyn was never happier than when experiencing other cultures and observing the quirks and oddities of people's behaviour. She loved adventure and could find it anywhere, in bus rides and coffee shops a few minutes from home, as well as places halfway around the world. She found great joy in the seniors group she attended in her mid-80s, where she spearheaded a dancing activity and got the only man in the group out of his wheelchair and onto the dance floor. In her older years she had a marked tendency to be flirtatious. In keeping with her attraction to the unusual, Jocelyn over the years amassed a significant collection of folk art, which included many singular pieces. The group of masks staring blank-eyed from the wall scared her grandchildren for years. Some of the more doubtful items she acquired she would describe as tacky, but nice tacky'. In her mothering years Jocelyn worked like a dog, for much of the time doing triple duty -- raising children, going out to work, and running a household. She was reliable, practical, extremely capable, and sharp as a tack managing money. She considered herself fortunate and had no grudge against life. She squeezed the delight out of it with all her might.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Sep 19, 2015