Joyce's father died when she was only a few months old, and life as a young child was tough, with food being in short supply. Joyce was 14 when war broke out. She had already was evacuated to the countryside but hated being away from London, even though people were kind to her. After running away at least twice, she spent the rest of the war back in London, doing a paper round and latterly working in a factory making aircraft parts. She knew her first husband when young. She often told the story of how he just thought she was just an 'annoying kid', but changed his mind after he came round with some kippers for her mum after he got back from the war! Joyce said he stayed all that evening, and then visited every evening after that, until they got married in July 1948, when Joyce waas 22 and Chas just 27. They were married for over 27 years and had many happy times. Christine was born in 1952 and the family moved into rooms in West Hampstead. Joyce and Chas (as Charles was known) then moved to Paddock Wood in Kent in the early 1950s; Chas became a bakers roundsman and Joyce ran the grocery shop in Paddock Wood. In the late 50s the family moved to Strood, in Kent, where Chas began working for the Post Office and Joyce worked for Rentaset, where she was described in a letter from the staff as having been 'on rare occassions ... a hard taskmaster - but we appreciate that everything you did was for the benefit of us all. It has been a pleasure to work in conjunction with you and we will all miss the call "Shush Girls!". She was always a very hard and enthusiastic worker, and later employments included working for the Metal Box Company and the Employment Exchange.