Harmon, Martha Joan
At Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada, May 18, 2016, Martha Joan (Forsyth) Harmon, wife, mother, friend, poet, adventurer.
Born in Fredericton, July 13, 1922, Joan was the first of Volney Forsyth and Mary O’Neill’s four daughters. Out of the gate she was blessed with an intellectual optimism and sense of adventure that would be her steadfast companions for 93 years.
Among her earliest memories were the sights and smells of her Grandfather O’Neill’s bakery on Regent Street, the less sweet aroma of his horses and of the summer visits to the camp at Robertson’s Point.
Transferred to Manhattan by the Bank of Nova Scotia, her father settled his young family in Scarsdale, NY. Joan attended the Ursuline School for Girls in Westchester. Through the war years, she attended and graduated Trinity College in Washington D.C.
Fresh out of college, Joan commuted to NYC to her first job as a researcher at Time Magazine.
She met William Burke Harmon Jr. and on May 22, 1948 they married in Scarsdale. Three days later, at Robertson’s Point, they began their 57 year honeymoon.
Joan travelled “via Pan Am”, to Barcelona to join her husband, a member of the Pan American World Airways advance team. In 1950 the couple returned to the U.S with their firstborn and settled on the south shore of Long Island. Blessed with three more children, the family moved to Bay Crest on Huntington Bay, where five more little Harmons turned up.
Through the turbulent 60s, Joan felt the call of her homeland, and in June 1973 the family landed at The Farm in Queenstown. With optimism, a Whole Earth Catalogue and the indefatigable help from neighbours Bob and Amy Sutton, Joan and Bill established the family farm; sheep, cattle, horses, chickens, pigs, the works.
With the youngest at school, Joan found time for poetry. Over the years she produced a body of work, in large part reflecting her love of New Brunswick. She was a member of the Maritime Writer’s Workshop, published in “The Fiddlehead”, “The Cormorant” and the “Pottersfield Portfolio”.
She served on the District 25 School Board, gallantly defending sensible policies. She was a prolific contributor to the Letters to the Editor of “The Daily Gleaner” and the “Telegraph Journal”, most often battling moral ambiguity.
Joan was a co-founder of Queenstown Industries Ltd., a member of St. Bridget’s Church Altar Society, Life Member Queenstown Women’s Institute and the Gloria Dei Singers.
Predeceased by her husband Bill, and sister Ann. Joan is survived by her nine children Will (Ktenia), Tom (Maria), Mary (John), John (Nancy), Doug (Bev), Joanie (Donald), Ann, Hugh (Mary), Jim (Melanie), two sisters Mary (Bibs) Reville and Volney Dawson, twenty-nine grandchildren, nineteen great-grandchildren and two pending.
Visitation at Oromocto Funeral Home, 108 Winnebago St., Oromocto, Friday, May 20, 2016 from 4:00 to 8:00 pm. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 25 Loisville St., Oromocto, Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 11:00 am. Interment at St. Bridget’s Cemetery, Gagetown.
Reception to follow at the Queenstown Orange Hall, Queenstown. In lieu of flowers, contributions to the St. Bridget’s Building Fund or an email letter to the Premier of New Brunswick in support of the Gagetown Ferry would be appreciated. Online condolences can be made at www.oromoctofh.com, (506) 357-5100.
Joan had an enormous capacity for love, friendship, a wonderful sense of humour and a vital interest in absolutely everything.