Joan Antonia Piebiak, resident of Grande Prairie, AB, formerly of Eaglesham, AB, passed away on Monday, October 28, 2024, at the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital, at the age of 84 years.

Joan was born on July 7, 1940, as a home delivery in the Fox Creek Area of the Eaglesham district. Because of the home delivery, her father had to register her with a Canadian “official” and that was Harry Mycek, the railway station agent at Eaglesham. When it came down to naming her, her father’s English was not so good, and Harry’s Polish was even worse. She ended up being named Janina Tosia Piebiak, though the intent was to name her Janina Antosia Piebiak. However growing up in English-speaking Canada, she just used the English version which was Joan Antonia Piebiak.

Joan attended primary, elementary, and junior high school in the (then) new Fox Creek School by Larson’s Corner. It was a two-room schoolhouse where they taught kids from grade one through grade eight. After which, you had to go to the big school in Eaglesham. There she graduated from high school in 1958 and decided to take a career in Nursing. So off she went to Edmonton, AB, which was quite a change for a little girl from the Peace Country. She graduated in 1960 and went to work in various places starting in Grande Prairie, AB, followed by Port Alberni, Penticton, Chilliwack, and Prince George, BC, and finishing her career back in Grande Prairie around 1985. She had returned to Grande Prairie to take of her elderly mother, who had been living alone since her husband died. Joan continued to take care of her mother until passing at the age of 95 years in 1999. It was a lot of “caregiving”.

Joan was a very dedicated nurse and a caring person, who enjoyed her work and made friends easily. As a result, she has dear friends all over Western Canada, who kept in touch all these years and whose hearts were broken when she passed away. The world lost a very wonderful and kindhearted person.

Joan, like her mother, enjoyed gardening. As a child, she learned how to milk cows, feed the chicks, hoe the potatoes, and take care of flowers. When her mother passed away in 1999 Joan remained in the same house and continued “working” the garden. She had an excellent flower array and the nurses at the old hospital, which backed onto her lot, would often comment that if Joan saw them with their noses pressed against the hospital windows, it was not fright, but adoration. She occasionally would take live flowers to the wards at the old hospital just to “pick up” the morale of those staying at the hospital.

One of Joan’s most prized accomplishments was being a part of the Eaglesham group, which beautified the Fox Creek Cemetery. Her father Symon and brother Joe were buried there and she felt, along with a group of local people, that this cemetery needed to be beautified. Joan, along with the other community members did an outstanding job of designing a landscape plan, seeding the area down to lawn grass, planting various trees, and erecting a large monument dedicated to the pioneers of the area. They were the individuals who built the Fox Creek Church as well as working and developing the area into what it is currently – a lovely farming community.

Sadly, bone cancer took her life in just four weeks. Just a month ago she was digging up potatoes in her garden, and now she walks with angels. Joan was the second last surviving member of the family of Symon and Katarzyna, who came to Canada in 1938.

Joan was predeceased by her father Symon in 1976, mother Katazyna in 1999; as well as her siblings; starting with her infant sister (in Poland) in 1921, brother Joseph in 1954, older sister Bernice in 2015, and her older brother Anthony in 2017.

She leaves behind the only surviving member of her family, Edwin, her younger brother.

She will be sadly missed by many people, her brother, various cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws, and her many, many good friends.

Before she passed away she talked about the fact that she was not going to die, but was in fact going to “cross-over” to God’s spiritual world. This is exactly what she did on Monday, October 28, 2024.

May you rest in peace Joan, you have more than earned it.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, November 1, 2024 at 2:00 pm at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church (10404 102 St). Prior to the Mass a viewing will be held beginning at 1:30 pm.

Interment will follow the service at the Grande Prairie Cemetery. There will be a luncheon to follow at Oliver’s Funeral Home (10005 107 Ave).