RIP Joan Esther Muriel Baxter (nee Sider) 8th October 1925 – 22nd June 2013
On Tuesday 9th July 2013 the Venerable Raymond Thompson, Parish Priest, officiated at the funeral of Mrs Joan Baxter who was one of the original worshippers at the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis of Assisi, at its formation in 1993, and who continued worshipping after it was received into the Anglican Catholic Church in 1999.
Although never formally received into the ACC herself, she continued actively supporting the Parish for as long as she was physically able to do so. Joan also joined the Parish on a number of Church trips including a couple of pilgrimages and retreats to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk.
Joan Baxter was born on 8th October 1925 into a family with 3 siblings, Robert, Harold, Lillian, with a fourth, Doris, being born a little later. All have predeceased her.
During the World War II she worked as a ‘clippie’ on the local buses and once told of how she was in the bus and caught in an air raid. This may account for the fact that although she loved the spectacle of fireworks she never liked the bangs!
She was engaged to Tom Baxter at the beginning of World War II, during which Tom served in the British Army, being posted to Gibraltar, and they maintained regular contact with letters. After the war they were married and settled in Strood. Although they never had children of their own, they had nephews and nieces and great nephews and great nieces. Joan organised her diary and often sent postal orders or a little cash to the children when they were growing up.
Joan worked for much of her working life in factories, in Photo Productions in Chatham and later Gillingham, and in Staples the Printers in Rochester.
After the death of Tom in the late 1980’s, Her sister Doris and Joan shared a home together, however when Doris died in 1991 Joan became extremely lonely and felt fairly isolated, although she was grateful to those members of the family she did see.
Our Diocesan Bishop, the grandson of her eldest brother Robert, moved to the Medway Towns as a Priest in 1993 and founded the Mission of St Francis (later adopting our Lady of Walsingham as co-patron to avoid confusion with another Church dedicated to St Francis locally). Joan was a regular visitor to his home.
One of her great interests was the Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell, being a member of his fan club with a large collection of his records, dvds, videos and mugs. On one occasion she went to London and queued to see him and get his autograph at one of Oxford Street’s huge record shops.
One of the great events in her life was a trip to his home in Ireland and she remembered the trip fondly thereafter. Joan also inspired a Church collection for Daniel O’Donnell’s, Romanian Orphanage Appeal, and took a cheque and the greetings of the congregation to Ireland with her when she visited Daniel and was photographed with him after handing over the cheque. The Photo appeared in our Church’s International Newspaper ‘the Trinitarian’.
Sadly increasing infirmity meant that a number of years ago Joan had to move to Clairmont Residential Home, Wigmore, Gillingham where she was extremely well looked after and very happy.