Joan Roye Feinsod

October 27, 1942 - April 16, 2022

At approximately 1:30 A.M. Saturday morning, April 16, 2022 the love of my life, Joan Roye Feinsod passed on. Joan and I have been together for almost 68 years, since we were twelve year old 6th graders. We were approaching our 59th wedding anniversary. We finished grade school together, went to Junior high School together..... both skipping the 8th grade, went to high school together and went to Pratt Institute together where Joan studied fine art and advertising design and I studied architecture and interior design. Joan was sixteen when she entered her freshman year at Pratt and I had just turned 17. We had a beautiful wedding on June 7, 1964 the day after college graduation......... but we cheated a little bit and married at city hall the previous November...... in the fall of 1963........ which succeeded in keeping me here rather than possibly spending time in the military. It took us 10 years to pay off student loans........ despite my working almost full time during my college years. This did not slow us down however. We started our business in 1965..... had our first child.... Lauri in 1966... bought our first house in 1968..... had our 2nd child..... Robyn, in 1969 and finished paying off our student loans in 1973...... the year we had our first vacation..... a long weekend in Canada.... 9 years after we honeymooned there. It is not possible to have had a more exciting, fulfilling, love filled life than the one that we experienced together. We've traveled the world....... been to more than 35 countries...... flew the Concorde to Paris..... sailed the Aegean Sea.... been to the top of the world trade center........ pre 9/11..... raised two fabulous kids both of whom are a lot smarter than we are..... had 4 homes.... Manhattan, North Carolina, Florida and St. Maarten in the Caribbean. We've enjoyed our beautiful and talented grandchildren Jake and Riley..... two exceptional student athletes....... both of whom are probably smarter than the rest of the family. Joan was a loving, caring mother...... loved being a grandmother more than anything else...... a wonderful lover... and an ideal partner in both life and business. I can't think of a better definition of a soulmate. Furthermore she was a talented artist and an inspiration to me every day of my life. While growing our business, we were together 24 hours a day for more than 25 years. I don't know many people that could pull that off........ and, as a result, this Covid19 thing was merely an inconvenience..... although it did deprive us of one more year of world travel. We were still hoping to see Fiji, Easter Island and Alaska.... three places that were on the bucket list. When we sold our business in November of 2020..... 15+ years after we turned over the reins to Lauri and Robyn, there were almost 300 employees there, many of whom had been with us for over 20 years. Joan was healthy. At the time of her passing she was on no medication of any kind. She laid down for a nap at about 1:00 P.M. and 12 hours later it was pretty much all over...... she passed gracefully, peacefully at ease. There was no suffering of any kind. She had recently been diagnosed with dementia, but it was early on that nasty road and she didn't live long enough with it for either of us to suffer. Her spirits were up, as they also were. Her only awareness of her dementia was her diminishing ability to remain competitive at Scrabble....... a game we probably played 50 times a month during this Covid19 chaos. I don't have the words to express how much I will miss her and what this loss means to me. Approaching 80 years of age, we, of course, had the conversation about how the surviving spouse will manage, etc. The thing is, we both expected that I would be the one to go first...... having had skin cancer, surgery, lung cancer followed by both surgery and chemotherapy, and prostate cancer followed by proton radiation...... not to mention my family's poor cardiac history. Joan was the healthy one. I am doing great physically....... haven't had any treatments of any kind for almost two years...... not counting the cardiac stent that was put in last week. It's very hard to imagine life without Joan ......... However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that she won't have to go through this to put me in the ground. In the absence of my ray of sunshine, that light, however, is somewhat dimmer than it would otherwise have been. This is a celebration of a life well lived, of the cup always being half full, of inspiring others to do what they thought was undoable, of making love and not war, of improving the lives of others with caring, generosity, understanding, kindness, tolerance, encouragement and respect. It is not possible for me to have enjoyed our life any more than I have. This life that Joan and I shared turned out better than any life I could have imagined. I thank her for her wisdom, support, patience, and most importantly, her love.... and I expressed this while she was around to hear it. If you would like to honor Joan's memory, please do so by being more tolerant and understanding of others......... plant a tree,... anywhere..... they're good for the planet..... drive an electric car.... support your local charities.... Chapel service will be held at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel located at 5808 W. Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach, Florida 33484 on Tuesday, April 19 at 11:00 A.M. Internment will follow at Eternal Light Memorial Gardens located at 11520 State Route 7 (also known as route 441) in Boynton Beach, Fl 33473