Joyce “Joy” C. Westervelt of Cresskill peacefully went home to be with her Lord on Saturday, March 30, 2024. She was 75.
Joy was born on Feb. 22, 1949, in Columbia, S.C., to the late Wendell and Betty Fae (Brady) Sullivan.
She attended Columbia Bible College, where she met her future husband, James C. Westervelt.
After her husband became an ordained minister, Joy stood faithfully by his side and assumed the important role of a pastor’s wife.
In addition to raising her three children, she served the Lord in local church organizations for many decades with her husband while he served various congregations.
Joy also founded and ran a local day care for years, which was dedicated to caring for and loving little ones. The children under her care lovingly called her Aunt Joy because she treated them as her own. She certainly was like an aunt to so many.
In Joy’s later years, she developed a home-cleaning business, which she saw as a ministry. Joy truly had the heart of a servant.
Most recently, Joy and Pastor Jim settled in Hamburg while he served as pastor at the Hamburg Baptist Church, then subsequently served as pastor at Grace Fellowship Church.
Joy loved being with her family and being a devoted wife, mother and grandmother.
Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by her devoted husband, the Rev. James C. Westervelt (Pastor Jim); her granddaughter Victoria; and her brother David Sullivan.
Joy is survived by her daughters, Chera Hart (Ian) and Heidi Savill (Gary); her son, Joel Westervelt (Kirby); 10 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; her brother, Paul Sullivan (Tammy); and her sisters, Kathy Pappas (Loui), Jan Jolley (Doug) and Kris Truax (Rod).
She will be so dearly missed here, but knowing she has been reunited with her late husband and is fully alive in the presence of God allows her beautiful legacy to live on.
Friends may pay their respects to the family on Friday, April 5 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Pinkel Funeral Home, 31 Bank St. (Route 23), Sussex. A graveside funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 6 at the Clove Cemetery, Route 23, Wantage.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Joy’s memory to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (https://www.classy.org/fundraiser/5400751), which is an organization that is very close to her family’s heart, as Joy and other family members have been affected by this disease.
Online condolences may be offered to the family at www.pinkelfuneralhome.com