Today is the saddest day in my life. Today I am saying goodbye to a sister who has always been my best friend. Nobody understands you the way a sister does. Her memories and yours are linked forever.

Joan was a loving sister, a real "people person", and at times... Pretty darn exasperating.

It would be tempting to candy coat Joan's life and share with you only the good. But that would be an injustice to Joan. It was her perseverance in the face of great adversity that made Joan such a special person; a courageous person. In the words of Mark Twain, "Courage is resistance to fear, not mastery of fear, not absence of fear."

At the age of 26, Joan was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis a genetic disorder of the nervous system which causes tumors to grow in the brain and spine. At the time of this diagnosis, Joan was a registered nurse at Lourdes Hospital where she worked on the Oncology unit. It was a crushing blow when Joan realized that her disorder would ultimately rob her of her hearing and she could no longer be a nurse.

Joan was not to be deterred. She went on to recover from her surgeries and graduated from Gallaudet University Summa Cum Laude with a second degree in Social Work. In a sad twist of fate, she became permanently deafened during yet another brain surgery just four weeks following her graduation.

But, Joan persevered. She went on to get a Masters Degree in Social Work from Syracuse University and had fulfilling work assisting the deaf and hard of hearing in the Syracuse community.

Happy memories:

Those who knew Joan knew she had an irrepressible zest for travel. She always wanted to explore new places and meet new people.

I remember the time, when a mere month following a brain surgery, Joan flew – against my adamant objections, to Philadelphia to see a dear friend. I remember fretting like a mother hen. I picked her up at the airport and immediately noticed she was so red in the face and I feared the trip had been too taxing on her health. At dinner that night, I expressed my concerns about the redness in her face and asked if she was feeling all right. Joan quietly laid down her fork and said, "Diane, I have a confession. I didn't go to Philadelphia to see friends; I went to Bermuda by myself. My face is red because I am sunburned. I wanted to see a beautiful beach and I didn't want you to worry." But that was Joan, always considerate of my feelings.

Many of us here also remember Joan's most ambitious trip – to go to New Zealand to see in the new Millennium. Joan wanted to train her body hard so that she would be able to hike in the rugged wilderness to see all the sights. I will fondly remember the image of her - walking stick in hand, water bottle at the waist, hiking all over Endwell as she prepared for her trip.

In closing, I want to thank the many friends who are here with us today, and for the kind thoughts of her many friends around the world who knew Joan through her travels and through internet communities.

Your support and kindness have helped us greatly at this sorrowful time. I know you all understand exactly what I mean when I say that a bright light has been extinguished in our lives. Still I know she would be the very one to tell us not to mourn, for she is free at last.

The poem, "Free At Last," found on the opening page, helped me to ease the tremendous sorrow of this event and may ease your minds and hearts as well.