Joy Elaine Carpenter, 58

Joy Elaine Carpenter, 58, was born in Muskegon, Mich., on July 26, 1956.

She passed away unexpectedly the morning of Oct., 31, 2014.

Services were held on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, in Bonners Ferry.

Joy’s family moved from Michigan to Boynton Beach, Fla., when she was five years old. She graduated from grade school and high school there before moving on to satisfy her insatiable curiosity about what the world had to offer.

Joy was a longed for and dearly loved baby. She had white skin, white hair and big, remarkable, blue eyes peering out from the whiteness. Her Mom and Dad called her their little “Spook”, and her mother Ethel, known to her family as Moo, continued to call her Spook at appropriate times throughout Joy’s life.

She was an outgoing and happy child, eager to please. For all of her life she wanted and soaked up all the love she could get, returning it sevenfold. When she was two years old her parents took her to a meeting at their Masonic Lodge, and when the Grand Master picked Joy up she immediately asked him where all of his hair had escaped to. Yes, he was bald.

She enjoyed school, though Moo was chagrined to learn that she had laughingly told her first grade teacher that her dad had a “big, white hiney.” That was Joy, matter-of-fact, with a sense of fun early on that never left her.

Joy and her little sister Judy loved and fought and complained about each other and helped each other and protected each other and formed an unbreakable bond of sisterhood; sometimes loving and, in childhood, sometimes not so much, but always there for each other.

Early in life, too early in her parent’s opinion, she acquired a strong sense for social causes. Injustice, unfairness, bullying and incompetence disguised as arrogance made her blood boil, and she worked hard all of her life to put things right for others.

She truly cared, and those who loved her sometimes felt that she carried more than her share of the burdens of the world on her shoulders.

In the early 90’s, Joy, her husband Ray and their three children, Rachel, Nathaniel and Sarah, moved to North Idaho. Not too long after they were settled in Joy got to experience driving on ice and snow for the first time. She did so without any major mishaps but she was always leery when winter rolled around. As always, though, she persevered and did what had to be done.

She worked for years as a secretary at St. Dominic’s Academy in Post Falls, and had fond memories of a trip she made to France with some of the nuns and students, including her oldest child, Rachel. After leaving there she worked at Health and Welfare until severe back pain from prolonged sitting forced her to go on disability. She lived in pain from then on, but refused to let it diminish the love and laughter that she had always thrived on.

In 2004 she married Ken Carpenter and loved her two stepsons Derek and Heath as if they were her own. In-laws loved her as a sister and aunt.

Her adaptation into a Moyie Springs girl was seamless, and she wasted no time in acquiring chickens, two rabbits and two goats. They, along with four dogs and some indoor birds, gave her the love and affection that she always shared with any animal she ran into.

She also loved horses, and had previously owned one.

Joy helped out the Hope House in Moyie for the last couple of years, dedicating many hours a week to helping those in need.

Joy was a precious daughter, a loving sister, a fantastic wife, a devoted mother and grandmother, and a deeply loyal aunt, niece, cousin and friend. She loved and laughed until the end and will be forever missed by the many who cherished her.

She is survived by husband, Ken Carpenter, daughters Rachel O’Hearn (husband Phil and daughter, Jenna) and Sarah Lozeau (daughter Peyton), son Nathaniel Lozeau (son, Joren), mother Ethel Razure-Sharpe, sister Judy Thornton (husband Dwain), brother Lee Razure, nieces Nicole, Barbara, Christie, Shannon and Erika, stepsons Derek (wife Erin and children Lilly, Blake, Anneli and Robert) and Heath and many dear friends.

Joy believed in God, the hereafter and the power of love. Rest in peace, dear heart.