Lysbeth Bonner Joslin '63, better known as Lisa, or the Crazy Cat Lady (Reformed) began her inspection of the Great Beyond on January 18th, 2022. It was about time she was in charge of how she got around for a change, trading in her body for… however they get around Over There. She’ll be letting us know, that’s for sure.
She was born in 1945 to parents William F. Bonner jr., an architect she says designed outhouses or such like for the Manhattan Project and Salome Righter Tome '37, a Delaware artist with a heck of a name. She was the middle child, which was awkward. She and her little brother played kids' records backwards and memorized the lyrics, with hits like “Eggbert the Easter Egg.” Reverse lyrics don’t translate to the written page, but it went something like “Egg beer a boppin, yip yip yip. Onka onka nick-a-nack. Boom, Fitzgerald. Bock. Bock.” She tried her luck with horses, but that was her big sister’s thing. Thus she followed her own passions, starting young: Art, slight hyperbole, and a mild aversion to wealth.
She started her lifelong accrual of student debt at Wesleyan Women’s College in Macon, Georgia. She graduated with the proper use of the word “y’all” (there is no plural form for ‘you’ in the English language) and BA in Education. Next up was Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, where she completed her first Masters. She was among the first registered Art Therapists in the mid-Atlantic states. This was just the beginning of a career involving the clinical analysis of tens of thousands of crayon drawings of people, trees, and houses. Not to mention papier-mâché masks, toothpick thingies, and glitter glue whirls. She had a knack at communicating with those with significant learning differences- and a thorn in the side to any bureaucrat that got in her way. Her second Masters was in Special Education from the University of Delaware, and we swear there’s a third but we can’t find it. She was an unsung hero to Delaware’s kids (and one or two from North Carolina).
With the help of her former husband, she had a kid of her own in ‘72. Together, mother and son decorated many Christmas trees with ornaments decapitated by felines or other ill fortune- delighting in headless things with almost pathological glee. She sang him nursery rhymes about worms meeting untimely demises upon railroad tracks, and planting watermelons atop graves. This is because she wanted him to be a normal child, plainly. Normalcy was never in her- or his- cards.
Her claims to fame include interrupting the late Sir Sidney Poitier at dinner, meeting the actor who played the Lion in the Wizard of Oz (he was “a grumpy puss”), and teaching alongside President Biden’s sister Valerie at Wilmington Friends School. She boldly appeared as Penelope in a stage adaptation of “Dudley Do-Right” (community theatre is all guts, no glory). Her abstract artwork has been displayed at the Delaware Art Museum, but she also did celebrity portraits in a pinch. Absent babysitters yet furthering normalcy, she took her son to Women’s Liberation meetings, and to ParaStudy, a psychic research institute in Pennsylvania. She had a love for the ineffable, the indescribable, the unknown. A vanishingly rare quality.
Lisa excelled at presuming things to be lost or stolen, only to be misplaced, usually near a junk drawer. It happens. Other notables include making use of any empty space whatsoever, because you never know when you might Need That Thing. She did not hoard, it should be noted. She collected with purpose (there’s a difference). Collections included books, art supplies, canned goods, paper towels, important mail, and coffee creamer. She liked her coffee black.
She retired to Dover, Delaware after a long life in public service. She liked the service part, not the public. Lisa was a champion of the underdog, though she’d probably say undercat. She was most recently employed as a Social Worker with Connections in Wilmington where her friends were the rough and tumble folk with unusual nicknames. She was restless in retirement, always scheming how to cross Route 13 on her walker or do better at knocking people over with her scooter in the grocery store. She doted on her cat. For the record she did not name her “Fuzzy” because, as she’d tell you, the name indicated an obvious and redundant quality. Previously, she has been the cat mom to Pole, Halloween, Mojo, Sassy, Cleo, and Agrippa (as in Henry Cornelius the Alchemist, she didn’t name any of those, actually).
Lisa in her later days reminded us that it was her “job to be inappropriate.” She was, in many ways, a punk rocker, a maverick, a rebel. Once, she was chastised at a hospital job for concealing her identity badge with a Count Von Count sticker from Sesame Street. She believed it was perfectly fine to draw mustaches on ladies’ magazines at doctors’ offices, and say the quiet things out loud. She said “I’m sorry” a lot, but there was- and is- never anything to apologize for in service to being a radical individual.
Lisa is survived by her sister, Theo “Bonnie” [Bonner] Hayslette '61 and her baby brother William “Billy” Bonner III, and their respective large families. Her son, Theodore “Jay” Joslin, lives in Asheville NC and is thankful he turned out weirdly. Her dearest friends include Judy & Bill Blatz of Wilmington, and Kim & Bill Brockenbrough of Clayton. Many people consider her family- throughout Delaware and in western North Carolina where some of her ashes will be carried in the wind and might just wind up in a firework or two. A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date when we can find a bagpiper who can play “Dancing Queen” by Abba.
In lieu of flowers, love relentlessly and do something truly cantankerous while you have the chance, or adopt an elderly cat. And… get boosted already (her sentiments).
PS: Mom, heaven is keyless entry. You’re all good.
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