Joyce W. Anderson, M.D.

Joyce W. Anderson, retired MD/GP, died peacefully in Wilmington as she wished at her adopted home, The Lorelton, on Saturday evening, September 10, 2022, on the day following national teddy bear day. Together with many bears, bunnies and other friends, Joyce, Plummie and Fricks had relocated to her apartment in The Lorelton in downtown Wilmington during the first part of July, where she was an instant hit and genuinely loved her new surroundings of a historically redeveloped former elementary school. Great friends and great services really pleased her.
Growing up in Chicago, education was really important for Joyce and her brother, Donald, who presented her with treasured Plummie as her 15th birthday present. Fricks came long later, wonderfully sourced by Michael Brody, later memorialized by the dog who thinks of himself as a bear, Brody, from Rehoboth Beach, also a close buddy to everyone else. Joyce was one of only a very limited number of women to graduate from the University of Chicago Medical School (along with approximately seventy men), at which time she obtained her residency at the Delaware Hospital in Wilmington, 750 miles away. Needless to say, Joyce never looked back, serving many Delawareans in the succession of her offices in Independence Mall, Faulk and Shipley Roads. At least as significantly, Joyce provided extremely impactful medical guidance and support by being in the last generation of physicians to come to the homes for those who were ill.
Throughout her life, Joyce had many friends, including numerous former patients, who are now spread far and wide. Yet Joyce was a private person who, over an extended period of planning, elected not to have a funeral or newspaper notifications. But she was someone who nonetheless embraced life fully, including as an avid sports fan of the Chicago Bears and Cubs and then translating her allegiance to the Philadelphia Flyers and Phillies. She was even more accomplished as a tremendous needleworker, a voracious reader, an avid collector and a shopper who loved her travels particularly to Barnes & Noble and to Anthropologie. Everyone knows that Joyce was an enthusiast of all holidays, whether patriotic or celebratory. But Christmas – and all that it meant in the sense of giving – was most special to Joyce.
While almost ninety-four, Joyce developed friendships in all age categories and walks of life. Her outreach not only involves people in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, but likewise Connecticut, New York, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona – just to name some of the states. Everyone, of course, will miss her, but Joyce will assuredly radiate from Heaven. Our sixty plus years knowing and having Joyce in our world has been nothing less than wonderful, as undoubtedly has been the same for everyone else. Yes missed, but truly never forgotten. Sincerely, Ted & Janet Lower