“I loved my job,” Joan said.

“I didn’t want to give up, but my body told me I had to.”

Most recently Joan (71) has been teaching reading recovery at Parkes Public School.

“I’ve been working one on one with Year 1 students who have dropped behind to bring them to grade level,” she said.

Joan went to Teacher's College at the the tender age of 16.  

She graduated when she was 18 and worked in Canberra for two years.

It was there she met and married her husband Gil.

From Canberra they moved to Forbes where she taught for 18 months until Gil took a job on a farm in Trundle.

Joan taught at Trundle Central School for two and a half years before the couple bought a farm in Parkes.

She got a job at East Parkes Public School and was working there when she fell pregnant at the end of the first decade of her career.

The couple have two children Emma (born in 1976) and Jeremy (1978).

“Gil was running a stud piggery and we found we could do with some extra money so I went back to teaching when Jeremy was three and a half,” she said.

“I was teaching music, it was the only job I could get.

“I was at all three public primary schools - East Parkes, Parkes Public and Middleton.”

Joan said eventually Penny Archer, the Principal of Special Education asked her to come and work with them when they moved the Special Education Unit from Danilenko Street to Parkes Public School.

“They needed an extra teacher so I jumped at the chance.”

“I was in that position for 10 years. I loved every bit of it.

“It was a different avenue of my teaching but it was very rewarding.”

Joan was forced to move from special education after they lost a teaching position.

The school found her a regular education job teaching Year 1.

“So I moved back to regular education,” she said.

“And I was there until the end of my career.

Joan said she loved everything about teaching.

“I love to see kids who are struggling improve, even when they are only little steps,” she said.

Joan has worked with past Parkes Public School principals Kevin Pye, Rhonda Brain, Leanne Breadon and the current principal Ben Smith.

For all the years she was teaching Joan was very interested in music and choirs.

“I conducted choirs,” she said.

“I took kids to the Sydney Opera House three times to sing.

“I enjoyed that, it was my relaxation even though it was hard work.”

In her retirement Joan plans to get back into some sort of music and is looking forward to having the time to do a lot more reading.

The Cookamidgera couple have done a lot of travelling during their married life.

“Gil comes from New Zealand so we travelled back and forth a lot with the children, particularly when his mum and dad were alive, Joan said.

Gil is well known for breeding Landrace and Duroc pigs and selling them all over the country.

“After he gave up breeding, he took up share trading and has been doing it ever since,” Joan said.

Emma is currently living in Hawaii with her husband Tim Tiller.

Tim is a soldier in the Australian Army.

They have three boys Declan (13), Mitchell (10), and Bradley (8).

“They’ve been there for two years now,” Joan said.

“They love it but they are coming home next year.

“It will be nice to have them back in the country.”

Jeremy works in water resources for the Australian Government.

He and his wife Sarah have two boys Caleb (14) and Isaac (9).

They live in Wollongong.