Joy Arlene Cole

Joy Arlene Hopkins Cole, age 80, went to the arms of her loved and loving Lord in Heaven on Christmas night, 2017. She was surrounded by love and uplifted in prayer throughout an intensive battle with cancer. Joy retired to Boise, ID, in 2003 after working in the greater Des Moines area for 46 years. She worked first in the Iowa State Attorney General’s office for several years, then was CEO of the Des Moines Home Builders Association for ten years, and lastly, she established and ran her own company providing trade association management and desktop publishing. Along the way, she mentored many of the individuals she encountered. Joy was an extremely independent woman blessed with tenacity and an impressive work ethic. She was happiest feeling useful at whatever work she was involved with; being a part of the Catholic Church; and living in her adopted community of Boise. She taught herself all manner of creative skills from designing and installing the necessary drip-line irrigation system to support her beautiful gardens, which she recreated each year, to baking and decorating gingerbread houses as gifts. She moved on from there to custom baking and decorating elaborate birthday cakes prepared for seniors and veterans in care centers, hospice patients, and foster-care children. Through this act of charity her cakes were often the first, last, or the only birthday cake an individual ever received. In between cakes, Joy volunteered at the Cathedral in support of the office and its daily mission. She was known for her dry sense of humor, boundless energy, and an impressive collection of hats and crucifixes to wear to Mass. Joy is survived by her beloved daughter and son-in-law, Melody Cole Giles and R. Thomas Giles of Boise; granddaughters Dana Giles Grover of Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, and Deidre Giles Baker of Santa Clara, CA; great-granddaughters Heather Giles of Las Vegas, NV; Hannah Grover of Golden, CO, and Paige Grover of Denver, CO, and Ashley Giles of Unadilla, NY. She was further blessed with two great-great-grandsons. Near the end of her life Joy found an excerpt from a poem by Ron Tenner very moving: “Our family chain is broken and nothing seems the same; but as God calls us one by one, the chain will link again.” A Vigil is scheduled for Thursday, January 4, 2018, in the Chapel of Cloverdale Funeral Home in Boise, from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. The funeral Mass for Joy will held January 5, 2018, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist at 1:30 P.M. The service will be followed by a reception at the Cottonwood Grill. A committal service will be held at the Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego, CA, the following week. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the St. Vincent de Paul Society at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, or to a charity of your choice.