Joan Eileen Gilbertz died peacefully in her home with her husband John at her bedside after a long illness on May 9, 2015. For more than forty years Joan and John resided in the Laurelhurst neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, as members of All Saints Catholic Church. For many years she was a registered nurse at Providence Hospital, where she worked in ER and general nursing. After retiring from Providence she provided foot care for the elderly in northeast Portland until her 80th birthday. Having no children of her own, Joan devoted her life to serving her large extended family, her church, and the larger community as host, counselor, volunteer, and comforter.

Born in Toston, Montana on June 4, 1932, the youngest of nine children of ranchers Clarence and Clara Berberet, Joan and her parents moved to the Sellwood area of Portland in 1946, where she attended St. Maltar Society ry’s Academy, graduating in 1950. Working as a nurse’s aid soon led to attendance and graduation from St. Joseph School of Nursing in Vancouver, WA. She then took nursing positions at Veterans Administration hospitals, spending two years in Portland and six years in California. Thus began a sixty-year career of nursing and foot care.

«Aunt Joan» was frequently both organizer and at the center of her extended family social life. Summer weekends and holiday family reunions clamming, boating, storytelling, and celebrating at «Joan’s Cabin» on Case Inlet of the Puget Sound near Allyn, WA, were memorable gatherings and the stuff of family legend. «Joan and John» were always fixtures at family weddings, funerals, and reunions wherever they were held—in Oregon, Montana, California, or Washington. To many she was like a big sister or additional parent—listening, laughing, advising, and offering a shoulder to cry on. She was always generous with her time, attention, and good humor.

Much of Joan and John’s life together revolved around worship, service, and social events at nearby All Saints Church. As a result of her church volunteer activities (e.g., Altar Society, prayer group) and personal warmth, fellow parishioners became her very best friends. Perhaps nowhere was her humanity and sense of service better demonstrated than when she and John opened their home for several weeks to a Sarajevo Muslin refugee family victimized in the Bosnian war of the early 1990s. They have remained dear friends of the Bosnian extended family ever since.

Joan was a capable, independent woman, unafraid to voice her opinions and to stand up for those in need. As such she was an influential role model for her many nieces and nephews who often sought her advice. She loved to garden in her back yard and actively composted or recycled garbage. In the weeks before she died she delighted in a bumper crop of asparagus that had begun to produce for the first time.

Besides her husband of 47 years, Joan is survived by brother-in-law Paul LeBrun of Edmunds, WA; brother- and sister-in-law Robert and Joan Gilbertz of Portland, first cousin Dennis Quinn of West Linn, 35 nieces and nephews, and numerous other cousins and grand nieces and nephews. Charitable contributions in Joan’s memory may be made to All Saints Church, Northwest Catholic Counseling, and Portland Rescue Mission. Her funeral will be held at All Saints Catholic Church on the corner of Cesaer Chavez and Gleason in Laurelhurst at 11:00 am on May 18, followed by a luncheon in the parish hall.