By JESSE GRAHAM
Joy Tope
Born: 27 December 1920
Died: 31 March 2013
Joy Tope, of the historical Healesville Taber family, is remembered as an affectionate woman by her daughter Debbie.
She passed away earlier this year at the age of 92, spending all of her life in the Healesville area and mothering five children and heavily integrating herself in the history of Healesville.
Born to Arthur Taber and his wife Lateena Jane in 1920s Healesville, Joy was born into a family with a strong link to the town, after coming into the area in the late 1800s from Port Fairy.
Sister to Doris (known as Dorrie), Stanley, Winnie, Myrtle and Dulcie, Joy, her sisters and her mother helped to operate the family fruit shop and café in town and were affectionately known as The Taber Girls.
The shop was originally on the corner of Maroondah Highway and Church Street, but later moved down the road – during the war, the café sold dinner to soldiers who were in town.
A number of personalities, including cyclist and politician Hubert Opperman and Dame Nelly Melba, used to frequent the Tabers’ shop.
Joy had three children, David, Kenny and Kerri, to her first husband, Wally Brown, while living in Healesville’s Grandview Flats, then another two children, Tracey and Debbie, while living with her husband Eric in Blannin Street.
She became well-known in the area for her sponge cakes, which were often snapped up before they could hit the stalls.
Later in life, Joy and Eric were active members of the Healesville Football and Bowling clubs and one of her children Debbie Tope said that her mother was always a caring person.
She said that she admired her mother for her work in the community.
“If the CFA needed stuff, she’d be helping out. She loved the Salvation Army, and she did a lot for the Home League,” she said.
“Mum was well-respected within the community and loved to hug people – she was very affectionate.”
Debbie said that Joy had a massive loyalty to her home-town and was a woman who would do anything for her kids.
“To me, mum was very home-bodied – she wasn’t one of those people who wanted to see the world,” she said.
“She was a very content woman.”
The heritage of the Taber family was set in concrete in 2005, when the lane on the Corner of Green Street was officially named Taber Lane.
Joy and her sister Dorrie pushed for the sign, with Les Harsant of Healesville Historical Society and friend, Annette Hill, lobbying the Yarra Ranges Council on their behalf.
Joy was 84 when the sign was unveiled.
In February this year, Joy, then a resident at Healesville’s Monda Lodge, was photographed by The Mail giving a warm welcome to Collingwood’s Dale Thomas.
She passed away at 5pm on Easter Sunday, 31 March 2013.
“She was a much loved mother and will always be in our hearts,” Debbie said.
