Joyce I. Priest, nee Becker, 85, widow, mother and grandmother and a resident of Tonawanda, NY, passed away from natural causes with her daughter by her side in Kenmore Mercy Hospital on Monday, February 12, 2025, having lived a life full of challenge, of victories and defeats, of service and sacrifice for others, and of testing every possible limit upon herself right until the very end. 
Born March 5th, 1939 in Buffalo, NY to Edmund and Irene Becker, nee Spence, Joyce graduated from Tonawanda High School and answered the call of an adventurous life, traveling for some time with a mobile circus as a performer riding a motorcycle in a steel cage before settling back for a short time in the city of Buffalo with her husband, Kenneth Priest, and then into the City of Tonawanda with their three children, where she lived for the remainder of her days. 
In recovery since 1974 and sober until the end of her life, Joyce ran the Amity Club AA chapter in Buffalo for some years, personally shepherding countless people into or through the program above and beyond its scope, taking many into her own home to sponsor, guide, and protect from themselves, looking her own demons in the eye to help others free themselves time and again without hesitation, judgement, or regret. 
Joyce took in anyone that was in need, and the number of people that have lived under her roof is impossible to accurately calculate, the best guess estimate being sixty-plus, all of whom came to call her 'Ma'. 
Joyce was a Certified Nurses Aid with Beechwood Nursing Home (now Beechwood Continuing Care), and a Personal Care Aid taking care of people in their homes, for 40 years, specialized in Alzheimer's care, being companion, caretaker, and comfort for many people through their declines, there for them until their final moments making sure they knew they weren't going to their rest alone. 
Her first-born, Bruce Priest, passed away of cancer in 2011, and she is survived by her Bruce's fiance Lynell Starr, other two children, Jean Domon and her husband Dewey, Dawn Abramo and her husband Ralph, grandchildren Jessica Jaworski, Anthony Priest, Timothy Priest, Kaylee Priest, Marc Grosskopf, Jessica Boudreau, Sarah Boudreau, Gaige Abramo, James Abramo, great-grandchildren Brandon, Tyler, Alexis, Chloe, Emily, Isabelle, Heather, Bradley, Danielle, Sophia, Jazzy, her cherished cat Callie, and the scores of lost souls that shared a place at her table under her roof over the years that still to this day call her Ma. 
Her family would like to thank the staff at Elderwood Assisted Living for making her feel so at home and loved, and the many doctors, nurses, and aides at Kenmore Mercy Hospital for putting such extraordinary effort into supporting her final rally before so gracefully transitioning to comfort-care, allowing her to peacefully and comfortably go to her rest. 
In the end, as she had assured for so many others — she knew she was not alone. 
Visitation is arranged at John 0. Roth Funeral Home at 25 William Street, Tonawanda, NY on Monday February 17th, between 11:00am and 1:00pm, with service to be held at 1:00pm, concluding services at the funeral home. She will later be laid to rest with her parents, Edmund and Irene, at Elmlawn Cemetery in Tonawanda.