Munising- Joyce Marie Posio was born in a tar paper shack built to house itinerant woodsmen who were in the area cutting down hardwood trees near the little hamlet called Forest Lake, Michigan, on a cold, wintry December 20, 1936! Joyce always marveled at the description of the shack, in that there was frost on the walls the day she first 'saw' her mother, a seventeen-year old bride, living on the shore of the newly constructed power dam built to supply electricity to the region.

The dam turned the Au Train River into a six-mile long reservoir southerly from the (then) Munising-Chatham Road and the L.S. & I. Railroad. Logging and cord-wood production provided gainful work all along The State Road that became First M-25 and later M-94. to folks affected by the Great Depression that collapsed the country's economy. Joyce's Dad, John William Posio, lived with his folks on the banks of the Forest Lake Storage Basin!

The oldest child of Viola Astrid (nee Ketola) Posio, Joyce's younger days were filled with experiences involving boats, fishing, and going to the Vincent Truden Mercantile alongside the railroad tracks for treats of ice cream and 'penny candy'! She even dug up and sold fish bait to the many small-mouth bass fishermen that seasonally frequented the Basin fishery! At ten years of age, she learned to bake a cake from 'scratch', enjoying a hunk of fresh cake with a 'cup' of hot coffee!

Dad John W. Posio followed his father into the boat building business that provided much needed income in support of their eventual family of children with names, as Joyce's "sibs": Nancy, Bruce, Bonnie, Donna, and John Wayne "Boom Boom" Posio. The family took the name of "Posio" with them when they emigrated from near the Arctic Circle, in what is now known as Posio, Finland! Little wonder that Joyce loved the excitement of the boating-fishing pursuits she was fortunate to experience.

Baking was done on a big cast iron kitchen range, the center of life for rural livers! Life was good! That beginning in culinary art served her in good stead all her young child-rearing life later! Joyce and Mort (Martin Hendrickson) were graced with four lovely children: Evangeline Rae, Christine Ann, Sara Gail, and Samuel Linus, all of whom survive her!

Beginning school in a one room school house in Forest Lake, holding forth with k-6 students, built by Wm. G. Mather, the manager for Cleveland-Cliffs Iron and Forest Products Company, builders of the electric plant and storage dam in 1931, Joyce enjoyed the uniqueness of public school thusly afforded. That beginning culminated in a 1954 high school graduation from Eben High School! From that auspicious formality, life unfolded into a succession of misfortunes that tested the metal of this lovely person, helping to mould in Joyce that strength of character that followed her through sixty-plus years of marriage, four major surgeries for maladies, all congenital, four faultless child births, a decades-long siege with rheumatoid arthritis that exposed her to Vioxx, Methotrexate, and prednisone, medications that were prescribed to combat the effects of the R.A. Kidney failure took her life!

An almost life-long battle for survival took its toll on May 17, 2017, when undergoing yet another of many diagnostic tests to determine whether multiple falls at home might have caused brain damage! Not to be so, she succumbed to the final failure of kidneys damaged by disease onsets and their treatments, cloaked by the insidiousness of such a malady!

Joyce's greatest joys derived from the lives of her children! Says Evie, the eldest: "I admired my Mom's intrepid spirit. It didn't matter what the situation was. If they needed extra income she would pick and sell jack pine cones for the forest service. She helped her husband complete a forest service cutting contract often running her own chain saw. She loved life, her family and God. She inspired me."

Daughter Chris says, " Mama loved Christmas, everything about it. Both Mama and Papa would stay up to the wee hours wrapping and setting everything up with carefully selected meaningful gifts for each of us. She never wanted much for herself, she took joy in our enjoyment of the gifts she and Pop had selected. This is very precious to me."

Daughter Sara says, "My greatest memories of my Mama are in the kitchen as she taught me to make Finnish biscuit, dancing to Finnish music in the living room, and going to bingo together. She was my mom but also a wonderful friend."

Son Sam says, "My memories of my mom were a conglomeration of memories as a young boy. Sitting in the back seat of the car driving down a dusty often washboard ridden Powell Lake Rd. on the way to visit Aunt Elma and Uncle John Lammi at their summer cottage.

In my memory I see my mom driving and seat bopping to music playing on the radio. It wasn't the car radio but a transistor radio swinging from the rearview mirror of the car and she never sang but followed the beat anyway. I as a young boy was where I belonged to be…..with my Mama." Husband Martin concludes, "Joyce and I married because we believed that God had designed us to be together. In our 60 plus year marriage we honored each other before God in all aspects, creating our family out of great love for one another and Him. I look forward to seeing her again as God has promised."

Joyce is survived by her loving husband Martin Hendrickson, daughters Evangeline(Terry)Rusk, Christine(David)Nace, Sara(John)Rye, Samuel(Jill)Hendrickson, sisters Nancy Kinnunen, Donna Van Dellen, and brother Bruce Posio. She is also survived by four loving grandchildren Teddy, Philip, Keith and Christiann, and 8 great grandchildren, and finally many much loved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents John and Viola Posio, brother John Posio and her sister Bonnie Barnett. God be with you all until we meet again!

A memorial service for Joyce is tentatively scheduled for July 9 ^th ; contact the family for further information.

Joyce's obituary may be viewed at bjorkandzhulkie.com where relatives and friends may leave a note of remembrance.