Joanne Louise Malena (née Precious) was born on January 27, 1954 in New Rochelle, New York. Soon after her birth, the family moved to West Virginia where her father worked as a mechanical engineer. Summer holidays were often spent with relatives in Florida or Myrtle Beach. During her High School years the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky where Joanne was a cheerleader and competitive swimmer. Joanne was an excellent student and especially loved languages. She majored in Spanish at Indiana University and later earned a Masters degree in Education at the University of Louisville. For one year of her language studies she attended the University of Lima in Peru. Some years later she added her TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) certification.

Joanne met Cal Malena while he was studying to be a pastor in Louisville and they were married in 1977. She would leave her family to join him in a life of ministry in Canada. Their first ministry was in Lethbridge, Alberta where daughter Beth was born. In 1983 they moved to Saskatoon and Emmanuel Baptist Church where they stayed for 27 wonderful years. Sarah, Rachel and Danny were added to the family there. In 2010, with the children ‘out of the nest’, Cal and Joanne moved to Prince George, BC and have been enfolded by their current Christian family at First Baptist Church. Joanne has always been very active in the community life and ministry of these churches.

Joanne also worked as a teacher from time to time - at the Open Door Society in Saskatoon and at the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society in Prince George, teaching immigrants how to speak English. She was loved by her students. However, her first love and vocation has always been to create a warm and nurturing home for her family and the many others who passed through its doors. Joanne’s greatest legacy is the tremendous impact that she has had as a wife and mother and grandmother… a legacy for which her family is eternally grateful.

Joanne’s life was not without adventure, as various sabbaticals took the family to live in Bolivia, Costa Rica and Belgium. Cal’s work with Canadian Baptist Ministries, also took her to Kenya, Rwanda, South Korea, Mexico, England, and France. There were also regular journeys back to the Eastern US to visit family.

Joanne had a deep and abiding faith in God. She was committed to modeling her life after Jesus and to be led each day by his Spirit. This moved her to have compassion for the lonely, for refugees and immigrants, for members of the LGBTQ2S+ community and really everyone who crossed her path. She was known for her calmness, gentleness, constancy, humility and kindness. Her favorite things, beside playing with her two grandchildren Emma and Chase, were reading novels, the weekly online puzzle night with the adult ‘kids’, walks to the river with Cal, supper with friends and working in the garden.

She passed away on February 15, 2022 while swimming laps at the pool - another thing she loved to do.

A Celebration of Life service will be held at First Baptist Church Prince George at 2:00 pm PST on Saturday, February 26th. The service will also be live-streamed and the link can be found at fbcpg.ca (there will be a banner added to that home page in the next couple days that will provide a YouTube link). In lieu of flowers, please make donations to a charity of your choice or to the Refugee Fund at First Baptist Church Prince George (donation instructions can be found at fbcpg.ca/giving, designate gift to "Refugee Fund").

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