Joan's Life Story

Joan Haesloop

It has been interesting to read what others have shared. What a nice idea.
When I left Acalanes, I went to Cal Berkeley for a year. During the summer after graduation from Acalanes, I began to be conscious of a vacancy in my soul and tried a few avenues in the following months to do something that would fill that vacancy. The typical avenues failed. Then I met the Truth through a young woman who was placed as my roommate at Stebbins Hall in Berkeley. After observing her life and the lives of other friends of hers that I men in the next several months, I began to feel that I had found what I was looking for in the home meetings she took me to. I began reading my Bible in earnest. By now I was working at the University (first in the President’s Filing Dept. and later in the Grounds and Buildings Dept.) It became apparent to me that I was seeing the Bible lived out in the lives of these dear people that I had become acquainted with. It was different and it was hard for me at first to reconcile the differences, but then scripture that I had been reading confirmed to me that this was God’s Way and if I wanted to be right with God, I needed to walk in it. My course in life was changed.

Although I had been a pre-med major my year at Cal, I discovered my forte was numbers as I worked at different kinds of accounting for the next several years. I had offered for the ministry in this faith I had come to love and where I found such peace and satisfaction. In January 1963 it became my privilege to start out with an older woman who had been in the ministry for many years. I started in Napa, California. I continued in that work for thirteen years, laboring in many parts of Northern California, parts of southern Oregon, Hawaii, and lastly southern Arizona. We proceeded like the New Testament ministry: our main concern being the souls of men, women and children.

In 1976 my health broke. I am basically an introvert and had been spending my life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with many people, staying in different homes, etc. I just needed more “alone time” I realize now. I am very grateful for those thirteen years of privilege and know I benefitted so much from them. I met very many wonderful, gracious people. And now I could understand the Bible better.

I had to break into the commercial world gradually. It seemed after thirteen years that none of my previous office experience counted anymore. Office equipment I had used was quite obsolete. I was offered a few hours a day to work for an aspiring insurance agent handling paper work and figuring premiums. That molded the next several years. After working in Walnut Creek and living with my parents again for two years, I went to Santa Barbara to stay with an elderly friend who needed someone with her to help her with meals, etc. I was there for eight years working in insurance agencies: Lots of Customer Service and definitely working with numbers.

After eight years, I began to miss being around my family as another generation was being born to my five nieces and nephews. So I started looking into a place where I could afford to buy a condominium that was near to the Bay Area. That turned out to be Stockton where I have now lived for twenty-three years, first in a condo on Country Club. Then in 2000 I bought the house in North Stockton that I currently live in. I love it. I have a beautiful white Maine-coon cat that is eleven years old. And Last year we (Miss Lily White – the cat) and I got a puppy we named Monique. Lily weighs about eleven pounds and Monique may be ten pounds now. Monique loves to chase Lily. I’m not sure Lily loves it so much, but she is able to hold her own and sometimes does the chasing! I enjoy them both. I am happy to have a little yard to putter around in, and play ball with Monique.

Before I left Santa Barbara and since I’ve been in Stockton, I’ve had some time to pursue a love for painting. I tried oils, acrylics and most of all, pastels. Also I took some sculpture classes.
After I came to Stockton, I worked at a few different jobs and ended up working for the Stockton Unified School District as an accounting assistant. I retired in 2006, but continued substituting for awhile. In January of 2007 I realized I had better spend more time with my mom, still in her home in Walnut Creek where she has lived since 1951, if I was going to. She turned 100 years old that year. So I spent much of the next six months with her. I took time out for a knee replacement. It turned out she fell at that time and we were both in the hospital at the same time. She spent her 100th birthday in the rehabilitation hospital later, but was released to a party held for her at her grandson’s. Now I spend two nights a week with her and she has two other care-givers that tend to her ever increasing needs as her physical condition deteriorates. We hope to celebrate her 102nd on Oct. 24th.

And I look forward to seeing so many of my contemporaries at this reunion that so much work has gone into.