Joyce Elaine Maetche (Traub)

November 6, 1942 – September 1, 2026

With much love and sadness, the family of Joyce (Jo) Elaine Maetche (nee Traub) announces her peaceful passing on September 1, 2026, in Red Deer, AB, at the age of 83.

Jo was born during a blizzard on November 6, 1942, at a farm halfway between her parents’ home at Sunnyslope and the hospital in Didsbury. Jo’s father called his sister, Millie (a telephone operator at the time) to ask her to call the doctor for instructions for delivering the baby. As the youngest of six children, she caused no end of excitement.

She lived with her family in Sunnyslope until 1945 when the family moved to Mayton. She attended grade school in a one room school house that held 9 grades until the family moved to Castor. Jo’s family moved to Didsbury in the early 1950’s.

After graduating from Didsbury high school in 1961 and again for good measure in 1962. She said “basketball was my ‘major’ during the first year of Grade 12, so metric had to wait ‘til the second time around”.

After graduating, Jo attended Mountain View Bible College for two years, after which she worked as a telephone operator, a waitress at Num-Ti-Jah Lodge near Banff, and a meat packer for a couple of years.

She worked at the Swift packing plant in Saskatoon just long enough to make her determined never to eat weiners. That job, however, allowed Joyce and her friend, Lucille Richards to tour around Europe on their own. When the adventures got too scary, her brother Ken sent her a ticket back to Canda and she moved to Winnipeg to live with Ken and Treva while she completed her physiotherapy degree at the University of Manitoba. In the next few years, she purchased her own house along the Assiniboine River, where she hosted family weiner roasts.

From Winnipeg, she moved to White Rock, BC to work as a physiotherapist. She met and married Fred Maetche and moved back to Alberta with him to Red Deer to join his family of three sons. Fred and Jo enjoyed each other’s company, taking joy in being together, travelling, playing games, and entertaining others with their music and stories.

And Jo loved her family, relishing her roles as Jo, the step-mom, Nanny Jo to her family’s grandchildren, and Aunt Jo to her nephews and nieces and their children. Jo loved being the family photographer – taking wonderful photos of all the generations. Jo was an amazing organizer of family reunions.

Jo loved Jesus very much; for Harley and Glapha’s 50th anniversary, she memorized the Book of Ephesians and quoted it as a special gift. Jo loved playing the piano and singing, always accompanying family sing-alongs and playing duets with other family pianists. She played at services for many of the churches she and Fred attended. She also played piano for the residents at her retirement home while she was able.

Jo loved entertaining, taking her guests on a good walk, a bike ride or sharing a seasonal household task followed by a delicious meal and dessert. She always had cookies in the cookie jar and cinnamon buns in the freezer.Jo and Fred enjoyed gardening together and making their yard a beautiful and welcoming place for family and friends. Jo’s beautiful deck and planters were featured in Canadian Living magazine in the late ‘80s.

Jo’s love of cycling graduated from cycling on Red Deer’s beautiful bike paths on Old Yeller to her high tech road bike making many tours of the country roads surrounding Red Deer with Fred and the support vehicle not far behind. She cycled on several fundraising trips through the mountains for charities she supported, logging hundreds of kilometres on various Rocky Mountain routes in her 60s. She joined Patti for a rainy ride on the Okanagan Connector and again in Idaho at 76 for memorable mountain rides.

Jo loved dogs and shared her life with several canine characters through the years, Ace, Sparky, and Maggie come to mind.

Joyce enjoyed creating things for others. Many family members and friends were fortunate enough to have received a wedding or baby quilt handmade by Jo. She not only excelled at quilting, but at hardanger, petit point, and most recently doing Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter Eggs) and teaching others the same arts. She set up Pysanky stations in her dining room for a good month before and after Easter for people to come over and learn with her, while Fred and any accompanying husbands played crokinole.

After Fred’s passing in 2018, Jo moved into and Inglewood assisted living suite, and then when she needed more support, across the road to Aspen Ridge, where she was lovingly cared for until her death on September 1, 2026.

Jo is survived by three step-sons, Steve (Terry), Ken (Dawn), and Rory; grandchildren, Kyle, Scott (Katie), Curtis (Amanda), Tanner (Emily), Josh, Jeremy, and Kevin; and special great grandchildren Bryn, Tinsley-Joan, Noah, Morgan, Miller, Casey, Madie, and Ivan; as well as her brothers, Ken (Treva), and Dave; and numerous extended family members in the Traub and Maetche families.

Jo is predeceased by her husband, Fred Maetche; her parents, Harley and Glapha; her brother, Mervin; her brother, Lavern and his wife Doreen; her sister, Phyllis and her husband Ormand; and her sister-in-law, Hannah; and her daughter-in-law, Cheryl.

The family would like to thank Dr. Susan Konynenbelt and the Aspen Ridge memory care staff for their loving care.

Jo – you loved us all with your many gifts and talents. We will miss you dearly.

 

Funeral Service will be held on Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 1:00 pm at Eventide Funeral Home, 4820 45 Street, Red Deer.

If desired, memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Society or to Whisker Rescue.

Condolences to the family may be made by visiting www.eventidefuneralhome.com

• Date : 2026-09-01
• Location : Eventide Funeral Home, www.eventidefuneralhome.com