Date of Birth: February 8, 1963
Date of Death: December 9, 2016
Judy Hoyt of Melville, Sask., entered her eternal rest peacefully in her sleep at the young age of 53, after her second hard-fought battle with cancer.
Judy Lynn Hoyt (nee Ziola), was born on Feb. 8, 1963 in Melville, Sask. to Walter and Evelyn Ziola (nee Kondel) and was the fifth of eight children. She attended St. Henry’s and the Melville Comprehensive Schools and began working in the service industry at an early age. She supplemented her education by attending Air Cadets where she achieved the rank of warrant officer and obtained her glider pilot’s license. When she wasn’t soaring over the Melville-Yorkton region, she could be found on the curling sheet winning the high school provincial championship.
And as the daughter of a CN engineer, Mom took advantage of her rail pass to visit aunts and uncles from Toronto to Vancouver, often travelling with her sisters.
She married Keith Hoyt in 1982 and over their 10-year marriage, she was blessed with three children. She lived in New Brunswick with her young family for six years before moving back to her home town of Melville in 1994. It was here that she began to develop a career in senior living and healthcare, starting at St. Paul Lutheran Home in the laundry, housekeeping, activities and kitchen departments.
Judy worked hard to make sure that her children were well provided for and if muscle and sweat weren’t enough, Judy would put her mind to the task and find granting programs and other ways to provide. She was a caregiver at heart and so shortly after her children grew up and left home, she attended post secondary studies to become a nurse’s aid. She continued with St. Paul in her new position before moving to Pine Unit in Yorkton. In nursing, she said that she’d regained her purpose and at Pine Unit she said she found the place that she felt she was supposed to be.
As much as Judy loved her work, she loved her family more, following her children to visit them in Victoria and Edmonton. When that got dull, her daughter Candice took her parasailing in Mexico and all three kids sent her skydiving with her partner, Leonard Ward.
Leonard’s sons brought Judy her first grandchildren, satisfying a wish that she held ever since her children left the nest. But as if having seven siblings, three children, 21 nieces and nephews and six grandchildren wasn’t enough, Judy also billeted ball players for the Melville Millionaires.
Judy loved large family gatherings where she could be found playing card games with a plate of perogies in front of her. Tuesday nights you could reliably find her at the Legion playing bingo with her sister, Lorie. And on Saturdays, you might have run into her at a garage sale. She loved to dance to country music and she knew all the answers on Family Feud.
She is predeceased by her mother, Evelyn in 2006; and her father, Walter in 1986.
Judy leaves to cherish her memory and celebrate her life: her partner, Len Ward; children, Danny (Candice) Hoyt of Edmonton; Candice (Nassim) Hoyt in Los Angeles; and Nikki (Brandon) Campbell of Edmonton; step-sons, Layne Ward (and Kristine Raab) and their children, Ethan and Kenley; Kyle (and Brianna) Ward and their children, Nyah and Mila; Jared Ward and his son, Jaxon; and Nolan (and Shailyn) Ward and their son, Deacon; her brothers, Delbert (and Lori), Tim (and Kim) and Cyril (and Lisa); and her sisters, Debbie (and Kelvin) Davidson, Lorie (and Ken) Somogyi, Valerie (and Claude) Pelletier and Lisa Beierle. She will also be missed by more than 20 nieces and nephews, and innumerable friends and colleagues.
The funeral mass was celebrated on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. from St. Henry’s Roman Catholic Church in Melville with Rev. Fr. Mieczyslaw Burdzy, OMI, as the celebrant.
Arrangements were by Bailey’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Melville.
