Joy Ann (Nicklason) Potthoff of Nisswa, MN, passed away at home on January 6, 2023, at the age of 88, surrounded by family and her cat Gigi. The youngest of 12 children, Joy’s older sisters convinced her parents, William and Vida (Swenson), to name her Joy, because it was such a joy to have a girl after four boys. Born at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, MN, on January 12, 1934, Joy was raised on the family farm in Lindstrom, MN. A Swedish Lutheran, Joy attended Trinity Lutheran Church in Lindstrom as a child, where she sang Swedish hymns in a quartet with three of her brothers, accompanied by their mother on the piano. Her father died of nephritis when she was two, and she had to work hard keeping house while her mother kept the farm going with the help of the other children, especially her oldest brother Edgar. When Joy was 16, her mother remarried and sold the farm. Her stepfather told Joy and her brother Melvin they were old enough to fend for themselves. Homeless, Joy’s sister Toni took her in so she could continue attending Chisago Lakes High School.