Jocelyn Margaret Steedman

Jocelyn Steedman passed away peacefully in Victoria, BC on 12 April 2024, of kidney disease.

Jocelyn was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1937, the eldest child of Leslie Fraser, a civil engineer, and Patricia Crawford, a nursery school teacher. After getting a pharmacy degree, Joss left Australia at age 22 on The Southern Cross, sailing to Southampton, England via South Africa and the Canary Islands, the first trip of many in an adventurous life. While working in Edinburgh she met her future husband, Alan Steedman, on an ice rink; after a whirlwind romance they were married in Brisbane and settled in Ontario, where Alan was finishing his medical studies, and the first two of their four children, Jane and Scott, were born. Two stays in Australia followed, plus two more kids — John and Judith — both born during stints in Prince George in northern BC.

After her son John’s death in 1983, Joss and Al moved to Vancouver, where she took up pottery and gardening and volunteered at the UBC Botanical Gardens. In 1997 they retired to Victoria, to a beautiful old house in Fairfield, where Joss could indulge her love of gardening and sell her ceramics at Moss Street Market. She also cherished her Wednesdays with her lively and committed mahjong group. A lifelong spinner and knitter and an avid reader, Joss was endlessly curious about the world, travelling to Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam, Japan, Cuba, Mexico, New Mexico and India, among other places.

Jane, Scott (Leilah) and Judith (Patrik) and their children Lucas, Ray, Elsie, Zazie, Stella, Sami, Tova and Rose, and many Australian relatives and friends, will never forget her love of life and card games, and the cups of tea on her sunny back deck in Victoria, discussing politics, books and art.

Thanks for making us who we are, Jossie. We’ll miss you.

No flowers please: a gift to a good cause would suit Joss better.