Former first lady, Mrs. Joyce Hoyte, died yesterday at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital at the age of 78 years. Valentine’s Day was an appropriate day for her to say farewell, because if there is an afterlife, she would be joining her husband, former Executive President Hugh Desmond Hoyte, her sister, and her two beloved daughters, whom she tragically lost while they were yet teenagers.
Mrs. Joyce Hoyte was not a politician, nor was she a very public figure, and she graciously retired from the limelight after the passing of her husband, at whose side she stood, resolutely supportive until they were parted by death.
She was much beloved by the membership of the PNC and remained the non-official First Lady for that party. She was reportedly graciousness personified when President Bharrat Jagdeo visited her once and they shared a warm rapport, because she was always a warm-hearted lady and respect for the elderly is entrenched within him.
The tragedy of the double loss of her two only children, daughters Maxine Gillian and Janice Amanda, in 1985 in an accident at Adventure on the Linden/Soesdyke highway while they were travelling in the entourage that was accompanying then President Desmond Hoyte to address a Labour Day rally in Linden, may have devastated, as it would any mother, but only her intimate circle was allowed to witness the full extent of her grief.  In the eyes of the world she maintained her outward decorum.
Killed in that accident, also, was Mrs. Hoyte’s sister, Mrs. Gwendoline DeFreitas; while Mrs. Hoyte and driver of the vehicle, Sydney McKintosh were hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Hospital. Her injuries were extensive enough for her to be flown to Cuba for further evaluation and treatment. She could not even attend the funerals of her sister and daughters, which were held at the National Cultural Centre on Friday 11th May 1985.  The driver subsequently died.
Some persons reach beyond divides and touch the heart; and her great kindness to my daughter Maria and grandson Ryan during a time of grave distress in their lives has left an indelible impression in my memory.  Many times I answered the phone when she called to invite my grandson to visit her and every time she was graciousness personified. Some of her gifts to Ryan still remain to this day.
Mrs. Joyce Hoyte may not have made a mark in the political dynamics in Guyana, but she would forever be part of the landscape of this nation’s history; and indisputably there is none who would not bid her a blessed journey to her loved ones in Heaven.