For Joyce Denny, Yass is home. It’s where she feels comfortable. It’s where she “fits” in. “Yass has been good to me,” Joyce said in a delightful voice, still rich with her native brogue. Migrating from Belfast to Australia with her family at 21 years of age was at once exhilarating and frightening for the young Irish lass.
“People don’t believe me when I tell them why we moved here,” she laughed.
“My father went to buy a newspaper one day and was given an Australian penny. He said the only place he could spend it was in Australia and that we should move there so he could.
“We all thought about it for a few months and decided it was a good idea.”
So Joyce, her mother, father and sister travelled across the seas to join her brother, who was already living abroad.
Joyce always found it difficult to comprehend how her mother and father could pack up and leave their family and friends.
“My family had been in Ireland since the 1200’s and we had relatives covering the entire country, from one end to the other.
“I have no idea how my parents managed to leave their family behind.
“But I have absolutely no regrets. It was the best thing we ever did.”
The pretty Irish girl had plenty to offer the sunburnt country. With a Diploma in pig, poultry and cattle rearing, the former county hockey champion and talented athlete started working on a turkey farm in Wagga Wagga.
It was there where she met her husband, Barry Denny, also a “ten pound Pom.”
“He had to be an Englishman, didn’t he? I couldn’t have met an Aussie?”
After marrying Barry in 1956, Joyce and her new husband moved to Nyngan. “Out there in the middle of nowhere,” her first son Peter was born. Two more boys, Stephen and Andrew, came along shortly after as Joyce followed Barry, who worked as an overseer, from property to property, each time getting closer to Yass.
In 1981, Joyce and Barry separated. Barry moved from Tangmangaroo to Canberra and Joyce stayed in Yass, where her parents had settled.
“We had family up north and family down south and Yass was in the middle,” Joyce explained.
Joyce has never looked back since. She worked a few different jobs before taking an absence of leave to care for her sick mother.
“When Mum died, I was already virtually retired so I just made it official.
“And I’ve been extremely busy ever since.”
“Busy” is an understatement for the “young” 76-year-old, who belongs to more community groups than she can count on her fingers. If you’re going to do it, do it well, is the mantra Joyce Denny lives by.
“I’ve been a member of the Country Women’s Association since 1963 and found myself doing the secretary duties.
“I joined the Senior Citizens’ Club 15 or 16 years ago and I’ve been secretary there ever since.
“I’ve never been a person who could join something and just sit back. If I’m going to belong to something, it’s going to be a one hundred per cent commitment.
“I don’t like to go along to meetings and just say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in all the right places. I like to be busy. I like to have a job to do.”
In fact, “busy” could be Joyce’s middle name. On Monday she helps her church community, the Yass Anglican Church, hold a service for people who find it difficult to participate in the hustle and bustle of Sunday mass. Once a month on Tuesdays, Joyce visits people in their homes who are unable to receive Communion at Church. Every other week, she spends time making art and craft for Operation Christmas Child. Wednesday, is “Seniors’ Day” and Joyce relishes in the opportunity to share fun and fellowship with her dear friends at the Yass Senior Citizens’ Club while two Thursdays a month, Joyce attends her CWA meetings. Although Friday is theoretically her “day off,” Joyce can usually be spotted in Comur Street selling raffle tickets or making cups of tea to raise money for one of the many groups she proudly belongs to.
Despite her huge contribution, the community champion remains overwhelmingly modest.
“These are the things that all of us do. Not just me. There is always something that comes up that you want to be apart of.”
Joyce said she is happiest when she is giving something back to the community that has given her so much.
“Yass is a very comfortable place to live and I guess I just fit in comfortably. I never go up the street where I don’t see someone that I know. I always have a permanent smile on my face.
“The Yass population is one of the most generous and caring groups of people that it has been my pleasure to know.”
Joyce has no desire to ever leave Yass, despite urgings from her sons to pack up and live with them. She could never imagine leaving behind her close group of friends who she credits as her life support.
“My friends are very self-effacing. They like doing thinks for me but don’t need thanks. “Edna Kelly, Dorothy Locke, Jan Novak, Wendy Findley and Evonne Wrigley make my life very comfortable. They are very important to my well-being and outlook on life.
“I couldn’t live anywhere else but Yass. My kids say they’ll build me a cottage in the back yard and I say no thanks, all my friends are here.
“I have my name down at Gwen Warmington Lodge and when the time comes, I know I can go up there and have my friends around me.”
Joyce no longer yearns for Ireland. She’s passed the point of wanting to go back, because her home is here.
She does not want for much - just the opportunity to keep doing what she loves most for as long as possible.
“I hope I can continue doing what I’m doing now for as long as possible and that I have the ability to cope with whatever life throws at me.”
When asked if there was anything more she would like to add, Joyce concluded: “I would like to thank Yass and its people for accepting me and making me one of their own.
“Yass has been good to me.” And Joyce Denny has been good to Yass.
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