Langille (Thompson), Annie “Joyce” Charlotte

Halifax, NS

September 27, 1931 - June 26, 2025

Annie “Joyce” Charlotte (Thompson) Langille, 93, was the youngest of twelve children, at the EN Ranch in the Alberta foothills to first- and second-generation Canadian parents with English and Northern Irish lineage, Susan "Susie" Hornet and Andrew Augustus "Andy" Thompson. Joyce's siblings were Walter, Bruce, Simon (Pat), Frank, George, Alfred, John, Jane, Margaret, Mary, and Gladys. Joyce was the only one of her siblings to have the opportunity to finish high school.

After graduation from St. Hilda's School for Girls in Calgary, Joyce went on to complete a teacher training program at the University of Alberta. Joyce taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the Alberta Foothill School District. She also taught elementary school in Banff and Falkland, Alberta and William's Lake, British Columbia.

She continued her education at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, with a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1961. Marriage and children brought her to Wallace, Nova Scotia, where she stayed for the next forty years. She taught in Cumberland County and, attending Dalhousie University in Halifax part time in the summers, qualified as a county-wide travelling reading specialist. Joyce received a Master's Degree in Education from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax in 1983.

In retirement, Joyce enjoyed vegetable and flower gardening. She served as an elder at St. John's United Church and a board member of the Wallace and Area Museum. She loved travelling: New Zealand, Ecuador, Greenland and Bermuda were just a few of the places she visited. She also ran The Crumpetty Tree, a bed and breakfast named after a line from an Edward Lear poem, The Quangle Wangle's Hat. Her recipe for chokecherry pancake syrup appeared in a Canadian Inns cookbook. Joyce's later life was enriched by German Shepherds, Skye and Raissa, and beagle mix Ernie, a hearing service dog.

In 2001, Joyce was joyfully reunited with her first born whom she was forced to give up for adoption in 1956 in a home for unwed mothers in Victoria, B.C. She carried this secret for almost half a century. A 2018 Canadian Senate committee report entitled "The Shame is Ours: Forced Adoptions of Babies of Unwed Mothers in Post-War Canada" recommended that Government of Canada issue a formal apology on behalf of all Canadians to the approximately 600, 000 mothers and the children of those mothers who were subjected to forced adoption practices in the years following World War II; such an apology is yet to be issued.

Joyce moved to Halifax in the early 2000s where she volunteered to teach English to adult new language learners at the local public library. She was later in residence at The Berkeley Retirement home on Green St. and then on Pepperell St. A lifelong avid reader, she participated in a spiritual book club run by Fort Massey United Church. She also took part in a bridge club with friends.

Joyce is survived by Trevor McLeod-Quon and spouse Sherman of Vancouver, Jonathan Langille, spouse Lisa and grandson Rémi of Halifax, Marie-Susanne Langille, spouse David Vayo of Bloomington, Illinois, granddaughter Becky Sunseri, spouse Nick and great-grandsons Leo, Evan and Nate of Redwood City, California, grandson Gordon Vayo and spouse Kate Dessa of Las Vegas, Nevada and honorary daughters, spouses Mary Purdy and Archan Knotz of Pugwash.

Donations may be made to Therapeutic Paws of Canada - Halifax Chapter, Lions Foundation of Canada DogGuides, Halifax Public Libraries home delivery and ENL programs, Victoria General Palliative Care (QEII Health Sciences Foundation) and The New Democratic Party of Canada.

Joyce wanted her body left to science through a program at Dalhousie University’s medical school. In lieu of a traditional service, a celebration of life may occur at a later date.