Joy Elaine Vermooten was born in March 1928 on her family farm in Natal, South Africa. She had an older brother and two older sisters.

Her favorite childhood memories of her riding on her pony around the farm and visiting with her aunt. As a teenager,she spent her free time going on hikes with her friends from church.

When Vermooten was 18, she moved to London with her mother and found a job working at a hospital there. She soon became an RN and a midwife and later met her would-be husband, Cyril. The two were married in March 1954 and would have three children together: Ian, Linda and Graham.

The family would regularly go camping in African animal parks, which are some of Vermooten’s most cherished memories.

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Read all of Vermooten's story and the rest of the Ethnic Life Stories Project stories by clicking here.

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Music is Bach Cello Suite no. 3 by Colin Carr from the Free Music Archive.

Episodes are edited, recorded, mixed, and published by Diana Dudenhoeffer.