Leona Arlene Joss

Leona Arlene Joss (known always as Arlene) died at home on October 11, 2023. Arlene was born April 23, 1940 in Saltcoats, Saskatchewan.

Arlene started life on a farm outside of Bredenbury, Saskatchewan and moved to town to live with her grandparents as a teenager. Her younger brother Glenn remained on the farm.

Arlene was very industrious, at one point holding down 3 jobs while attending school. She cleaned her grandparents home, worked at the Joss cafe in town, as well as the town meat locker owned by her dad. In her late teens, she became a bank teller. She really enjoyed working with numbers with precision and accuracy. Indeed she carried this organization and attention to detail into her married life. She was often teased for her meticulous record keeping. She kept receipts, utility bills, etc. as far back as 30 years. Of course neatly filed by date and subject.

Arlene met and married Don Joss, who lived in the same small town of 500 people. They were married in 1961, over 62 years ago, and were together until the time of her passing.

Arlene had 2 children, Murray and Lori, and after they were born, her full time job was to take care of her family and home.

If awards were given out for cleanliness, she would have won every last one of them. Her alias was Mrs. Clean, at least this is what her husband Don and her friends called her. Murray's friends would jokingly bring over white gloves to try to find dust, but never could. Arlene was probably one of the only people in the world that actually enjoyed ironing. She ensured that her children were not only brought up in a clean and organized home, but there was always food on the table at meal times. She was a talented baker, making apple pies, nanaimo bars etc. One item she was well known for was her dinner rolls, which her family affectionately referred to as "her buns". There were fights over Arlene's buns. Some would argue that Arlene had the  best buns.

She was a talented artist of many media, oil and watercolor painting, ceramics, knitting, crocheting, and she was a master seamstress. She made many clothes for her children and Halloween costumes for grandchildren. Later in life she used her talent to make hundreds of dolls and baby blankets that she donated to local hospitals for sick children and newborn babies.

She always seemed to buzz with energy and could not stay idle long. Some of her grandchildren coined the term " Arlene walk". She was always moving about 3x faster than everyone else and was usually about 50 steps ahead of the rest of her group.

Arlene loved board games- mahjong, hand and foot, and dominoes to name a few. One thing that she and her husband Don made a hobby was moving. They did this at least 25x in their lives.

Arlene was known by her family and friends to be a very kind, non judgmental person with an abundance of grace for others. She was dearly loved and will be sadly missed.

She is survived by her husband Don Joss, her son Murray Joss and daughter in law Roberta Ober of Lakewood, CO, her daughter and son in law Lori and Ken Vernon of Durango, CO and 5 grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother Glenn Martin and sister in law Helen Shriner of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as well as many cousins, nieces, and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Arlene's memory can be made to wearehfc.org- an Alzheimer's charity.

Please join the service using this link:

https://event.forgetmenotceremonies.com/ceremony?c=a82c6584-c574-4ab3-bc16-0cb2b1748a48