As a student, Joy was “a follower, not a leader”, academically average but quite sporty.  She attended a girls’ convent secondary school and was good at netball and excelled in athletics, particularly relay racing and hurdling, where she was a state representative hurdler. A well-rounded student, Joy also took piano lessons for many years. She had a wide circle of friends, whom she now counts as “friends for life” although it was almost 40 years before the group reunited during Joy’s husband’s last 4 years’ work posting in Malaysia prior to his retirement. This “coming back together” was such a significant moment for Joy that with her friends’ support she made a book with a brief self-biography each woman wrote, that Joy distributed to all 49 fellow class members, free of charge, prior to the actual event so they could be up-to-date with each other’s life experiences. Memories have long been precious to Joy, who likes to be able to demonstrate her appreciation of others.

Joy admits that when it came time to focus on career decisions, there was some societal pressure on her to become a doctor or something with equivalent status and pay packet, yet she found this unappealing and instead wanted to work at something she actually liked, though at that time she had no idea at all what that might indeed be. From Form 4 onwards, when Malaysian students need to specialise, she chose the Science stream because she had the grades to do so, despite feeling she was actually more interested and talented in the somewhat less prestigious Arts stream.  So, for Forms 4 and 5, she had to attend a Boys’ school as her school did not offer the Science stream.  This was perhaps the first clear example of Joy’s innate impulsivity.  Looking back with mature wisdom now, Joy would advise herself to “think before you leap” because at that time consequences were not on her radar. Her parents though were taking a more long-term view, and it was decided she should eventually complete her matriculation overseas so that she could enrol in a university there.  The reality of university placement for a culturally Thai/Chinese girl in Malaysia in the 1970s was that she would have limited offers and choices.

Joy spent almost a year living back in Bangkok with her spinster aunties, her father’s sisters, two very social-minded ladies, while an overseas boarding school was arranged for her in Melbourne, Australia. This was definitely not her aunties’ preference.  They would have preferred her in Britain, where they had a much stronger sphere of influence and contacts.  They were already thinking of possible advantageous marriage options they could engineer for the young Joy, but she slipped their net and eventually married a man of her own choosing.  However, Joy’s time in their home gave them the opportunity to develop her skill set.  She was sent to finishing school, where she learnt the formal Thai rules of etiquette and behaviour in a wide range of situations involving people from elevated social circles.  Joy also recalls one occasion when she attended a very large garden party, only to find it was a Napawongse gathering and that all the many attendees were in fact members of her extended family network.  Joy cheerfully admits she can be clueless at times, and as a young woman, had no idea about these things.

She headed off to Australia to matriculate, and found that boarding school was not too horrendous for her.  She even “souvenired” monogrammed cutlery from the school in her final weeks of attendance, before being enrolled in Monash University in Melbourne to complete a science degree.  She needed 4 first year subjects, and wanted to avoid Chemistry, so chose Biology, Physics and Geography, then had to hunt for a 4th area of study.  She thought Geology would be OK, because learning about rocks might be interesting and she could eventually end up finding some diamonds. Another example of Joy’s natural naiveté, perchance? Joy ended up with an Honour’s Degree in Science majoring in Geology and also a second degree in Geography after her 4 years of study in Australia.  She also returned to Thailand with a good amount of money she had saved by working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant during this time.

It was only upon her return to Thailand that the reality of her situation finally hit Joy.  She was living with her parents at Khao Takiab, on the far end of Hua Hin beach and life was peachy. Her father had just taken up the completely new sport of windsurfing and taught her the skills in 1981, right at the very start of its popularity in Thailand.  After about 10 months, seeing her finances dwindling, Joy would windsurf up to town on a weekly basis to purchase the Bangkok Post so she could check the job advertisements.  One day she spied a job for a geologist with an oil company, having a degree in the field, she promptly applied, despite the fact she had none of the other qualifications and experience required, even the ability to fluently speak, read and write Thai.  Of course, she did not get the job but she must have piqued the company’s interest because not long after she was offered a job with the title of Technical Assistant in the geology department, which she gratefully accepted.  The reality that there were not that many opportunities in the field of geology in Thailand, particularly for a woman, was becoming apparent.

Joy spent the rest of her working life with the company. It was her interest in always learning more that prompted her career advancement from an office job to becoming a well-site geologist.  Joy resigned from her job to accompany her drilling engineer husband around the world to the Netherlands (twice), the USA, Nigeria, Russia, Denmark and Malaysia and managed to find time to have her children, Patrick and Rowena, who lived and travelled with their parents until it became incompatible with their educational needs and they went off to boarding school. Although she pursued a career in geology and was involved in the extraction of fossil-fuels, it is a career choice she would not make now, seeing the effects of global warming on our planet’s systems. Climate change is one of the factors, along with war and global political instability, that makes Joy, usually such a positive and optimistic person, feel that the world is a worse place now than it was when she was young.

Upon her recent return to Hua Hin to live, there have been some revelations for Joy. All her life she has seen herself as more Malaysian than anything else, but she has recently come to appreciate that in Thailand she is treated a little differently by officials and bureaucracy.  She now understands that her parents made a deliberate choice to tell her little about her ancestors as they wanted her to have a normal childhood and not consider herself anything special.  They succeeded. Joy can discern a change in attitude and deference when she submits her passport or other identity document, however.  It is because her official name trumpets her ancestry to Thai people. In recent months Joy has become aware that she is a descendant of Thai royalty, on her father’s side from the founder of the Chakri dynasty, Rama I. The mother of the Prince who started the Napawongse clan was Rama I’s granddaughter. Indeed, in Thailand, for many years,19th July was designated Napawongse Day. But interesting as that may be, she is still the Joy Newman she has been the majority of her life.  The only real shift is that she now has the strong urge to document and secure her parents’ historic and family legacies.  Luckily, when they retired to the home in Hua Hin she now occupies, Joy encouraged them to begin journalling their memories and these are now becoming vital jump-off points for her research efforts.

Besides crafting things for herself, her family and friends, Joy has also put these skills to good use on numerous occasions as part of her ongoing charity efforts. While travelling in the Vientiane province of Laos, she became aware of a small clinic, run by a local doctor in the town of Kasi which was in urgent need of expensive diagnostic equipment. Joy decided she was going to make a significant contribution to the fund-raising effort by sharing her knowledge and skills in fruit carving.  She organised a full-day workshop in her own home, catered it herself, and every cent earn went directly to the doctor in charge.  With Joy, where there is a will, there is a way.

Joy’s family is also the source of much love and pride for her. Her granddaughter, Chloe, is the light of Joy’s life, judging by the number of FB photo albums Joy has, documenting every stage of her young life. Joy has given herself full permission to indulge Chloe, but within guidelines set by her son and his partner, Mary. Joy will be a “Khun Ya” par excellence.

While it must be acknowledged that many events and opportunities have occurred serendipitously in Joy’s life, chance means nothing if it isn’t recognised, embraced and capitalised on fully, and doing that, in a deliberate and purposeful fashion, is what has given Joy Newman a rich and fulfilling life.