Joan was my stepmother-in-law but I thought of her as my friend, a much loved and respected friend. I can never forget her kindness and true generosity of spirit when she welcomed us, her husband Robert’s first family, into her home on our arrival in Australia. From this beginning we formed a great friendship of affection and mutual interests our love of music, books and crafts, although she had much more skill with her needles sewing and knitting than me. Joan was a Lady – Lady being the operative word of intelligence, dignity, good manners, and very high principles, but she also had a naughty and robust sense of humour. Joan and I spent many enjoyable hours together when she visited our home on her own, and also almost every Christmas with her family, very good times with many happy memories. She quite often beat me at my own game scrabble even after her night cap of two glasses of scotch ! Although she had a very quiet and reserved demeanour she could also be very unbending and forthright. As Robert, a Mason, discovered when he was made Master of the Lodge, and Joan flatly refused to organize the wives in the kitchen while their husbands ’Swanned around’ in their dinner suits eating ! Other arrangements had to be made by a very ‘sheepish’ Master. My memories of Joan will not be as she was in her declining years but as an amusing and intelligent person whose friendship was highly valued. There is a Jewish Proverb that says – “Who finds a faithful friend finds a treasure”. I feel I have lost a treasure with Joan’s passing.