Joan Fisher was known for her smile, a smile that reflected her caring personality and lit up the lives of everyone she met.

“She always had a smile,” said Ernie, her childhood sweetheart and husband of 43 years. “People said to us at the wake that Joan’s smile started from her eyes.”

Joan’s smile was always present, even throughout her battle with cancer. On January 15, 2020, Joan passed away peacefully at her beloved home.

“Joan loved living at Rossclare House and it was her final wish that she passed away at home, overlooking Lough Erne,” Ernie shared.

Describing Joan as an “amazing mum” and her “best friend”, Shirley-Ann Dickey added: “She was there for everyone in her own way, even my friends. A sympathy card one of my friends sent to Dad this week really summed her up. She wrote that mum had ‘a genuine gift for connecting with people’. She was just so warm to everyone.”

As a nurse, this warmth was particularly evident. Joan did her nurse’s training in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where she worked as a Staff Nurse. She returned to Enniskillen after training and worked in the Erne Hospital for four years before moving into School Health Nursing.

The family noted that they were surprised how many people remembered Joan as their school nurse. “She was held in very high respect. I think that it’s only now that she’s gone, and you review the sympathy cards that we’ve had and the comments, that you realise the real talent that she had for putting people at ease and trying to console them when they had troubles. That was typically Joan,” said Ernie.

In July 1976, Joan married Ernie and they set up home in Ballinamallard where they raised their two children Gareth and Shirley-Ann. Joan was later blessed with three grandchildren, Amelia, Olivia and Connor.

“She wanted to make so many memories with them, even when she wasn’t feeling well. She wanted them to have stories and memories about her as well,” said Shirley-Ann, adding: “The first time that she wasn’t well, which would have been 15 years ago now, when she got through that treatment, I remember her being so happy because she said she wanted to be here so she’d be able to have picnics in the garden with her grandchildren, and that was even before I was married. And she did, she said that she had time with her grandchildren in the end and she got to make memories with them which I think meant a lot to her.”

Always full of fun, Joan had many hobbies and interests which included singing, painting, cooking, cruising on Lough Erne with her family and her voluntary work with the NSPCC. She enjoyed travelling with Ernie and their final long-distance trip together was to Vietnam in 2017. Joan was also a keen gardener, a love she was able to share with her grandchildren.

“She was very proud of her garden and loved taking the children out and getting their little spades and just planting pots,” shared Ernie.

Joan was very close to her sister Shirley Swan and brother Clive Bruce who were both very supportive throughout her illness, calling to see her at home regularly and bringing her to Belfast for chemotherapy appointments.

Joan first became ill in 2005, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After surgery and treatment, she had 12 healthy years until the illness returned in 2017. Joan’s relationship with God throughout her life gave her peace, strength and hope, especially through her final years.

On November 26, 2019 she was admitted to The Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital where she underwent a number of operations and received expert nursing care from the staff of Ward 2A.

“She fought hard to get discharged on Christmas Eve to spend her remaining time on this earth at home with her family,” said Ernie, noting the “wonderful support” of the doctors in Irvinestown Practice, the NI Hospice Community Care Team, the Community Nursing Team, Rapid Response Hub Nurses, Out of Hours Doctors and Marie Curie Nurses who made this possible.

Attended by approximately 600 people, Joan’s funeral was conducted by W T Morrison, Funeral Directors, with the funeral service held at Magheracross Parish Church, Ballinamallard. “We were just amazed at the number of people that came from long distances just to pay their respects to Joan, and to other members of the Bruce family and the Fisher family as well.”

Beloved wife of Ernie, dearly loved mother of Gareth and Shirley-Ann (Christopher Dickey), devoted grandmother to Amelia, Olivia and Connor, much loved daughter of Helen and the late Joe Bruce, dear sister of Shirley Swan, Clive Bruce and the late Raymond Bruce, Joan is lovingly remembered by her family and all the family circle.

Sharing a final message of hope, Joan had asked her dearest friend Helen Stuart to read the poem ‘She is gone’ by David Harkin at her funeral. A copy of the poem, handwritten by Joan and signed off with a smiley face, now takes pride of place in the family home, bringing comfort and strength with its final lines which read: “You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”