It is with sadness, yet profound gratitude to our Lord God in heaven, with Whom she now resides, that we must announce the passing of our beloved mother, Virginia Joan Lubbe.

Virginia Joan, known by all as Joan, was born to Mildred and Wilfred Gould, December 26, 1928.  She was raised mostly in Illinois along with her younger brothers, Bill and Ray, except during WWII.  While her father was deployed overseas, she lived on a farm in Missouri with her family, where she milked cows by hand and developed an abiding snake phobia.  She was very close to her mother and considered her to be her best friend.

She attended the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana where she studied zoology and art, which were her lifelong passions.  In her third year there, Joan met Fred Lubbe, a fellow student who was completing a JD in law.  At a school party, Fred saw her bright smile from across the room and asked her to dance.  They became inseparable from that time on and married six months later.  They settled in Burlington, Washington, where Joan helped her husband to develop a thriving law practice, raised a family of five children, and was a vibrant member of her church and community.  Among many leadership roles that she had, she served on the Burlington-Edison School Board for 12 years where she was the first female school board member.  As a longtime hospital board member, she played an instrumental role in projects such as upgrading the emergency medical system and building a new hospital wing.

In a life full of blessings, Joan also suffered tragic loss and life-changing events.  When her twin girls were still babies, Joan was in a terrible car accident in which her car was struck head on by a drunk driver, breaking her neck and both knees.  Though these injuries were devastating, she did not allow the significant pain and physical limitations to prevent her from living an active and fulfilling life.  She was a prodigious healer, and took pleasure in surprising her orthopedic surgeon with how long her cervical fusion had lasted.  But this was just the beginning of a string of life-changing events.

On a tragic day in 1975, her beloved husband of 23 years passed away suddenly from a catastrophic heart attack at the age of 49, leaving Joan alone to raise their five children.  In her grief, she turned to art.  During a ten-year period, she studied painting and had what we called her "golden age" creating some of her best pieces.  Eventually, she turned her passion for art and people into a new career in mental health treatment which helped to lead her out of her profound grief.

Joan began working, sometimes three jobs at once, first as an art therapist at Pioneer Center North and at Portal, another mental health treatment facility at the Northern State Hospital grounds.  Later, when these programs closed, she went on to work at North Sound Evaluation and Treatment in Sedro-Woolley, WA as a Psychiatric Technician and counselor.

Joan had an endless capacity to truly care about everyone she met.  She became a mental health advocate, working with state and local agencies and mental health advocacy groups such as NAMI to increase access to treatment and awareness for mental health issues.  She served as Chairman of the RSN advisory board for many years and was active well after her retirement at age 83.  Her goal always was to improve mental health treatment in Washington state, and she was an invaluable source of support, guidance and information for families navigating the mental health system, especially for those who were experiencing mental health emergencies for the first time.

Joan never lost her energy, goal directedness, and love for all living things.  She adored her family, friends, and pets, which included a pack of poodles that accompanied her everywhere she went after she retired.  She was always out and about in her car, and she was thrilled when, during the Covid Pandemic, the state renewed her driver's license until she was 96 years old.  She lived just six months short of that.

She is survived by her children, Deborah Karen, Fredrick Charles, William John, Virginia Marie and Catherine Margaret; six grandchildren; six great grandchildren.

Joan was preceded in death by her mother and father, Mildred and Wilfred Gould; husband, Fred Roy Lubbe; brothers, Ray and Bill Gould.

Rest in peace, our precious mother, Joan Lubbe.  We thank her for her unconditional love and the joy she brought to our lives.  Even though we know that we will see her in heaven, it is so hard to say goodbye for now.

Memorial donations may be made to www.paws.org .  Share your memories of Joan and sign the online guest register.