THE family of a fiercely loyal and caring lady with "the best legs in Chelmsford" have paid tribute to her generosity and kind nature after she died at the grand age of 103.
Doris Joyce, who was born in Moulsham Street on July 14, 1910, had an eventful life working a number of jobs and was later grandmother to six children and great-grandmother to a further five.
She grew up in Hamlet Road in the city centre and attended Friars School and later St John's Church School before taking her first job at Hoffmann's ball-bearing factory where she met her husband Horace 'John' Joyce, to whom she was married for 43 years.
Doris got married in Chelmsford in her mid-20s and went onto have two children – Irene Thompson, now 72, and Melvyn Joyce, 77.
"She was always there when you needed her," said Irene. "She always had such good advice. It was on family or work – anything really.
"I remember when my brother Melvyn used to jump out and play cowboys and Indians – it frightened her to death.
"They were fantastic parents when I was young," said Irene, who added that her mum was an intensely private person but had strong family values.
"I think she came from an era in the 1900s when she did not have many friends. Family seemed to be enough for her. She liked dogs and they had a German Shepherd called Max – she used to dote on it.
"She was a very caring person, she would always give you something if she could, even though she wasn't well off.
"I don't ever remember seeing my mum in a temper. She was very placid."
Doris also worked a variety of other jobs throughout her life including picking apples and peas, boxing repairs at a jeweller and even cleaning offices when she was 74 – showing her determined streak that carried on until very late in her life.
She remembered milk arriving on horse and cart, and taking cover in bomb shelters when Chelmsford was bombed during the Second World War.
After whipping up tasty meals for her family for years, Doris became a professional chef and continued until 1984.
Her speciality was stew and dumplings.
"She liked to help people on the bus, she used to help people that were younger than her by taking them by the arm," said Irene.
Irene's husband Robert, 71, added: "She was still going forward up until the last couple of months. She used to wave around her walking stick at me it if I was naughty. If you did anything wrong or was just messing about, she gave you the walking stick in a jokey way."
Naturally, like any person, she had to endure her ups and downs.
Irene said: "The one story I can remember was during the war when my mum had taken Mel to school and I was in the pram. The Jerries came over and I would not wake up and mum thought they had killed her baby and she was screaming."
But it was not only with her children that problems could have occurred – but also with her husband John too.
"Dad decided that he wanted to go off with another woman," she said.
"They remained friends and dad still used to come round for his dinner. He wanted to come back – but she didn't let him."
But despite being a private person with only a handful of friends, Doris, who lived in a warden-assisted bungalow in Arnhem Road in Melbourne, for the last seven years of her life, she still knew how to have fun – and even had some hidden talents.
Robert said: "We took her on holiday and we took her down to Cornwall when she was in her 70s. She enjoyed it – it was abroad to her because she had only been to Clacton.
"Everybody I met said she had fantastic legs. The lady next door to us said that. I would imagine that men used to swoon over her. She also loved the bingo which she found in her 60s.
"That was her first gambling, I think – they used to play it in the church hall in Melbourne – I'm not sure she won much."
Doris was fiercely independent and, even after she had an operation to repair her broken hip just a number of weeks before her death on Good Friday, April 18, she was still eager to get moving.
Irene said: "After they operated on her she was walking with a frame the next day. She had that look on her of determination.
"She loved her family and she was very interesting to talk to – fortunately, she was still very sharp-minded and if she thought she was right I would know about it.
"She was the hub of the family, all the family loved her down to the great-grandchildren.
"She was wonderful and a fabulous mum to both of us."
