LUDLOW, Vt. – Joyce Caroline Wilkins passed away on Oct. 2, 2024. Joyce was born on Feb. 20, 1945, in Colchester, Vt., to Villa and Richard Wells.
She married Albert Wilkins on Oct. 17, 1959. Joyce and Albert had four children: Chuck, Chris, Peggy, and Kelly.
Joyce made her home in Ludlow, where she raised her children while working at Valentes Restaurant, the Jewell Brook Woolen Mills along with Albert, and at Dartmouth Woolen in Claremont, N.H. She loved to read her romance novels, and was a huge fan of the soap operas on TV in her younger days. She spent many a night driving to local bingo parlors.
Joyce was a loving and caring mother, often frustrated by her children and their antics. Mom always took great interest in what you were doing in your life. She was fiercely protective of all she loved and cared for, and woe to any that felt her wrath; Mom was known to swing a mean broom handle at the boys.
For many years, Joyce and Albert would spend the winters in Florida; this was something she always looked forward to.
Joyce’s greatest joy came from all of her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, they always received her biggest smiles, and she loved them all.
Her husband Albert, her parents Villa and Richard Wells, her brothers Richard and Elton Wells, and her son Charles Wilkins predeceased Joyce.
Joyce is survived by her sisters Darlene (Brian) Haynes and Mary (Daniel) Brooks; her son Chris (Jacqui) Wilkins; daughters Peggy (Robert Olney), Kelly Willard (Todd Sumner), and Kimberly (Chuck) Wilkins; grandchildren Sylvia Wilkins, Lacey (Alan) Benoit, Ashley Olney (Jason Benson), Corey Willard, Brooke Willard, Sierra (Jacob) Mitchell, Tiffany Wilkins, Lance Wilkins, Mercedes Wilkins, Sasha Nichols, and Ashley Bussino; great-grandchildren Zoe Hewitt (Dylan Bussino), Jaylynn Hewitt (Kelton Dutton), Ariel Benson, Riley Rabideau, Taylor Rabideau, Dalton Rabideau, Albie Willard, Brayden Mitchell, Everett Mitchell, and David Graves; and great-great-grandchild Kayden Bussino.
A graveside service and Celebration of Life for Joyce will be held Oct. 17, 2024, Joyce and Albert’s 65th wedding anniversary. The graveside service will be at 12:30 p.m., at Ludlow Cemetery, and the potluck Celebration of Life at 2 p.m., at Jackson Gore Inn.
Memorial donations will be used to purchase a headstone for Joyce and Albert Wilkins.
Special thanks to the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative & Hospice Care, and the wonderful staff there.