Joan Thurber

                  Joan Thurber (68) of West Chester Ohio passed away very unexpectedly at home early on Saturday the 29^th of October. Ms. Thurber was born on March 10, 1954 in Asheville North Carolina to the late John Marr Jr. and Joan Estelle Marr. Joan grew up in North Carolina before attending and graduating from Rose High School in 1972. She was able to attend the 50^th reunion earlier in the month and her friends and time there meant the world to her. After graduation she attended Chowan College before starting a family and moving around until she eventually settled in West Chester Ohio in 1988. Joan was a certified pharmacy technician for most of her life and recently retired from the Kroger corporation after just over 28 years of working in store pharmacies. She enjoyed her time there mostly because of all the fantastic friends and co-workers she had over the years. In her first few retirement years, mom started to spread her wings and was expanding on previous hobbies and interest while starting new ones. She truly loved the outdoors and nature. She spent the years raising a family doing activities such as camping, caving, rappelling, scuba diving and basically anything her sons were interested in. There are way too many people to mention individually that were a part of all of the activities over the years but she developed so many lifelong friends from those days in the neighborhood on Quail Run Dr, sports and school activities, and all of the folks she met from Troop 940. The family are so thankful that she had so many friends throughout her life and that they meant so much to mom and to all of you that have been so supportive during this time. Finally, mom had a love of music. She attended many concerts over the years and was always discovering a new artist or rediscovering old favorites. When the family thinks of her, we always associate so many of our fondest memories of her and the many genera of music she loved. She especially loved the meanings of songs and the story teller song writers.

                  Joan is predeceased by her parents, John and Joan “Estelle” Marr of Southern Pines North Carolina. She is survived by her brother John (Ginger) Marr of Charlotte North Carolina and her two sons, Rob Thurber of Fairborn Ohio and Matt (Jade) Thurber of Montgomery Alabama. She is survived by cousins, nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews. Mom loved her family and spending time with them was one of her favorite things to do. She is also survived by her boyfriend Don Leedy of West Chester Ohio and finally by her beagle JoJo. Mom truly loved all animals and had a really special connection with all of our pets growing up and her two dogs later as an empty nester.

                 Mom loved flowers while at the same time she really loved helping others, both animals and people. While flowers are appropriate, we also feel that donations to charities in her name are also very appropriate and she would perhaps appreciate that a little more. We leave the charities up to individuals as she would love the idea of people doing good for animals and other causes and thinking of her. The two charities she talked about a lot with us over the last few years was the triangle beagle rescue of North Carolina and flying fur animal rescue if anyone would like to support either of them.

                Please be kind to each other and spend some time making memories with family and friends while we all remember Mom and her kind heart during this difficult time.