Joy Diane Bandemer

life story

She really lived...

Joy Bandemer passed away peacefully at home on April 23, 2022. She was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 13, 1935 to Myles and Francis Holub, she was the oldest of five children, Wayne, Gary, Ronald and Kenneth. She loved to write and following graduation from Calumet High School in Chicago, she went to work as a secretary. She met Fred Bandemer while working at Armour and they married in 1967 and had one daughter, Karen and six children from Fred's first marriage, Joseph, Diane, Mary, Frederick, Jeanne, and Robert.

The family resided in Bolingbrook, Illinois, where Joy became an active member of the community. She was on the Bolingbrook Housing Commission and on the Bolingbrook High School Band Boosters. She worked at the United Church of Christ for 27 years until she retired. She did not retire long as she then went to work managing 110 apartment units in Aurora, Illinois. She loved working, but most of all she always loved helping people.

Joy loved to cook and make sure everyone was fed. She would always try new and different recipes and would ask Fred if he liked what she made, and he'd reply, "It's okay," while eating whatever she made. She entered her White Castle stuffed pork chop recipe into the annual White Castle Recipe Contest and one year was awarded the grand prize, her recipe and name published in the White Castle Cookbook, and ten free White Castle Hamburgers every week for an entire year. She was asked to go on the Fox morning show in Chicago with Bob Sarat to cook her recipe .

She enjoyed going up north to Chief Lake in Hayward, Wisconsin, and then to Snowbank Lake in Ely, Minnesota for the annual family vacations. She enjoyed going to Las Vegas, California, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana as well. In 1997 Fred and Joy purchased a cabin in Ely, Minnesota, where they were able to send many summers fishing and just being in such a beautiful place.

Following the death of her husband, she moved to Minnesota to be close to her daughter and son-in-law. She resided in a beautiful farm home that her son and law had completely renovated for her, and Joy resided there with her two dogs until she was in a car accident that almost took her life in February of 2012. Joy survived the accident and resided with her daughter, son-in-law, her two dogs, and her "grand-dogs". She was frustrated that she had to use a walker, but she was a living miracle as doctors said she most likely would not make it one year of the accident.

She continued to cook and loved watching cooking shows, reading mysteries, discussing politics, enjoyed eating out at a variety of restaurants, going out to the movies, and going to see comedians and rock concerts (her last concert was the first row to see Foreigner in July 2021), attending the Minnesota State Fair, going to see baseball games, the Minnesota Twins and the Saint Paul Saints, going on boat rides on the St. Croix River and spending time up at the cabin.

Prior to Joy's 80th birthday, she was given the option to fly to San Francisco, California, and to travel the Pacific Highway ending in Seattle as that is where she and Fred had stopped and were going to return to finish the trip. Unfortunately, Fred passed away before they could return. The other choice was an Alaskan cruise, and that was her choice. Joy and her daughter flew to Anchorage, took the Alaskan Railroad to Seward, and then cruised from Resurrection Bay to Vancouver, British Columbia. Then they took the Amtrak to Seattle and spent the remaining days of the trip enjoying Seattle. Joy loved Alaska so much that she and her daughter went on another cruise in 2019, starting in Vancouver, British Columbia and ending in Seward, Alaska.

Joy had a long, amazing life and touched many people; she will be greatly missed by all.

memorial service

Funeral/Cremation Provider: Crescent Tide Cremation Services