Joceyln Yousef, nee Calvert last year made a trip to Hay for a wonderful reunion with all her beloved school friends. Jocelyn lived in Hay in childhood, while her parents owned the Pink Shop on the corner of Edward and Cadell Streets.

This catch up made her feel very honoured, and it was a time she cherished. It was not just any old reunion, however.

Jocelyn was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, for which there is no cure.

Her husband Itzic had just undergone his own cancer battle, something from which the family was glad to be finished with but exhausted from.

It was after further testing that it was discovered that the cancer had metastasised and spread to her liver and spleen.

Her oncologist broke the devastating news; the prognosis was dire, and a patient in Jocelyn’s situation had typically between 8 and 11 months to live. This devastated her family.

“My daughter, Revitahl said to me, “It’s not fair. How am I going to do this without you?” I said every time you look in the mirror, I am looking back at you. My blood runs through your veins and not only that, Nan’s does too.

“You are a fighter; you have a steel in your spine that comes from both grandmothers. “Bad things happen to good people,” Jocelyn said,

“The insidious thing about pancreatic cancer is you don’t know you have it until it’s too late.”

Joceyln, however, is inspiringly serene and stoic amid her diagnosis.

“Our son, Ben, asked me one day how I could be so at peace with all of this. I said, you know what, it does suck but I can either make the best of the time I have left, or I can stick my bum in the corner and make everybody sad. I don’t want that, it’s the way it is, what choice do I have?

“I am so lucky I have this amazing family, who are wonderful. My daughter-in-law came over last weekend and said let me do your vacuuming for you, she is a sweetie.

“I have the most amazing friends; I don’t know a lot of people that can say they are still in touch with the people they went to school with. There have been other school reunions that have been held and for some reason or another I haven’t been able to attend, but for some reason or other I was adamant that I would attend this one, the last reunion before this one, and it was phenomenal, reconnecting with all these people.

"I was so touched when after that event I got diagnosed, I started get ting phone calls, it was amazing.

“Then people started turning up for visit, the fact that people made the effort to come and visit just floored me.

“I felt very lucky. I have had a great life, idyllic childhood in Hay, fantastic parents, and family, and got to do exactly what I wanted to do.

“To be able to look down the barrel of my life and my own immortality and to be able to say I will leave this world with no regrets. How lucky am I? It’s a beautiful thing to be able to say.”

Neil John Nisbet, one of Jocelyn’s dear childhood friends, was one of the main organisers of the recent reunion and tried valiantly to locate any record or photographs of the Pink Shop for Jocelyn and her family.

Unfortunately, it seems to be one of those parts of history that is lost.

“There are, sadly, no records or history available for the Pink Shop, plenty of photos of the building, plenty in the back yard, but not inside the shop,” Jocelyn said.

“It is sad because it was such an icon of the time, such a big thing.

“Children would stop in on their way before and after school, get their lollies and take them to school, the Pink Shop is part of many treasured memories.

“Mum and dad were such go-getters, dad was an immigrant, one of the ten-pound poms.

“Who knows what he thought when he ended up in Hay, he must have thought he had ended up in hell,” she laughed.

“And then he met mum, who was a local girl, a Headon, and the rest was history. “Mum had been married after the war, and her husband was not a nice man. “Her brothers went to Melbourne for a sheep sale and decided to find her.

They packed her and my older sister Pam up and brought them home.

“Divorce was taboo, and mum did not have it easy, but she was a fighter.

When she met dad, her family said, “you can’t marry a ten pound Pom, think of the family”. But she did her own thing, she was always like that.

“Mum grew up in the life of ‘never go out side without hat and gloves,’ but when World War Two came, her brothers enlisted and so did she. But at that time, it just was not the “done” thing.

“But her brothers were doing it and she wanted to do her bit too. She was based at the army base in Wagga and driving truck con voys to Melbourne. I really admire my mother and father, she worked so hard, and they did so much.”

“There are so many amazing stories in Hay, if you have the time to just dig through them,” Jocelyn said.

“So many people from different countries, including the Polish man who my parents bought the shop from, who was a Dunera boy. These people must have come from unbelievable conditions and came here and made a good life.”

“We won the lottery when we met the Yousef boys, my sister-in-law said, and it is true, they are wonderful people, who had been through wars and a hard life,” Jocelyn said.

“The resilience of these people is amazing.” After her schooling was finished, Jocelyn moved to Sydney where she lived for 11 years.

“I was single, with no responsibility, I had a great time,” Jocelyn recalled.

“I don’t know how I ever survived Sydney because I was so green. How I survived some of the things I got up to, but I did and learnt from a lot of things. “I was never super career minded, but very keen on travelling, so I worked whatever jobs I could find to save enough money for my next ticket. “Once you travel you start to see the other side of things and can’t help having your mind broadened.

“Some people have no idea how lucky we are here in Australia. Yes, we have our own little first world problems, but I just think to my self it’s quite phenomenal how fortunate we are here.”

Jocelyn travelled around the world and found her happily ever after when she was least expecting or looking for it.

“Israel was always on my list of places I wanted to go to,” she said. “I organised to meet a friend in Kenya and go through Africa, to Sudan, then Egypt, and then cross the border into Israel.

“I knew we could volunteer on a kibbutz, work two months there, and it was great, but not what I was looking for. “I wanted to understand the culture and learn about Judaism. So, I went to a guidance counsellor in Sydney, where people go when they want to go to Israel and discover their roots.

“He looked at me and said you are not a Jew, if you want a holiday, go to Queensland.

"After the fifth meeting he realised I was genuine, agreed to help, and organised the kibbutz.

“Itzic’s kibbutz had been training pre army youth, Itzic had completed national service, he was a paratrooper in the Israeli army. “He came to help established the young kib butz, on the border of Gaza, and had been there for a little while when I turned up. “His English wasn’t good, and I knew no Hebrew, but it was fate.

“I was the least domestic person, at 29 I had no interest in settling down it was not on the agenda. I didn’t even know how to cook. But four weeks later we were living together.

“I never got a proposal as such; we were talking about coming back to Australia to meet my family.

“Itzic was talking to the kibbutz secretary, and he was explaining he wanted time off to go meet my family. “The secretary must have been asking how serious it was that he needs all this time off, and Itzic replied of course it is serious we are going to get married.

“I was just sitting there thinking well I guess I am getting married.

“We figured I should convert to Judaism, but upon examining the process, it turned out that Itzic would have to go to the synagogue every day to pray, and we would have to keep kosher, so Itzic wasn’t keen.

“He said, “I fought for my country I don’t have to prove how Jewish I am; I have done everything right.”

The kibbutz lawyer revealed as long as one parent is Jewish any children can have a normal life in Israel and still be eligible for army service and other cultural practices.

“Itzic felt strongly that my parents know who he was, and we could be legally recognised as a married in Israel if we married internationally, so off we went.

“Itzic’s mother, who I really admired, was concerned that the children would not be Jew ish, but I explained what the lawyer said and promised that I would raise the children in the Jewish faith.

“And we did. I remember the first time we took the kids to Israel so Ben could make his bat mitzvah at the Wailing Wall, very special time so emotional, was lovely, all the family were there.”

Jocelyn’s children have cousins in Israel they are very close to, and they both have strong ties to Israel. Jocelyn and Itzic are good friends with Eilish, Ben’s wife’s parents, who are a great source of support.

“They recently completely redid the garden for Jocelyn.

“It is magnificent, we are so lucky, and are surrounded by good people,” she said.

“Luck is what you make it, I am not a religious person at all, but you get back what you put out.”

On December 9, 2023, Jocelyn made a sky dive, the one remaining activity that she had always wanted to do but not yet done.

“I have no bucket list, but I have done it all, the only thing I wanted to do is skydive.

“My bucket list is to spend time with my family,” she said.

Joceyln has truly left her mark on this world. She has touched the lives of countless people, and shown up, lived her life exactly the way she wanted, and made the most of every single day. You are an indescribable in spiration.

The gorgeous Jocelyn has since passed away, and her loss is felt by so many. She will be remembered fondly by so many in Hay, and by all who knew her.