A contribution in her name is a wonderful idea!!!!! I lived in Burbank CA for years and attended the Horse Show many times and had the pleasure of attending a Shatner weekend once upon a time. I loved Talk Trek and Joyce was so nice to fans at cons.

Myself and wife are planning on making a donation in her memory. It would be nice to be able to sponsor a physically-challenged child to have riding lessons with Ahead With Horses. If anyone reading this wishes to donate then an appropriate link can be found on WilliamShatner.com or http://www.horseshow.org

Thanks, John, for a fine story.

I first wrote to Joyce in 1998. My best friend, Steve Kember, was getting married to his fiancée, Teresa, and had asked me to be his Best Man. Given our mutual devout interest in William Shatner, I thought it appropriate to try and get a message from Mr. Shatner to be read out at Steve’s wedding. My main problem, however, was finding the right person to contact. After much searching, I found the William Shatner Connection, headed by one Joyce Mason! At last, I had an address to write to! I sent Joyce an e-mail requesting a message from Mr. Shatner. Some time passed and an e-mail came back to me, saying that she had contacted Bill and that he wished the couple “much joy and happiness”. I read the message at their wedding and clearly the Bride and Groom were overjoyed. I wrote to Joyce and thanked her for her help and we continued to correspond.

Over the next few months, I came to know Joyce and she came to know me via e-mail. I had told her I was heading to the U.S. in September 1999 to work at Yale and I had said to her that I was definitely coming to the Shatner Weekend 2000. I asked her to reserve me a spot and I would send her the deposit – she responded that she had already put down my name before asking!

In April 2000 I arrived at the Sportsman’s Lodge in L.A. for the Shatner Weekend. Steve and Teresa had come over from England and had met me in L.A. On the evening of Friday 21st April 2000 we eagerly gathered in the function room awaiting Joyce’s arrival and the itinerary for the Weekend. Quite soon, Joyce arrived. One of the first things I remember about her is her wonderful smile. The second thing I remember her saying is “Where’s Ed?” I felt like I had known Joyce for years, yet this was the first time we had met in person. We hugged like old friends and sat down to talk. Next she hugged Steve and Teresa. Joyce also introduced us to her friends, Evie, Jane and Sandy, who all said that they felt like they knew us because Joyce had talked about us so much! We truly felt welcome and the experience of meeting everyone was wonderful.

Joyce loved our sense of humor. She laughed so hard when we showed her a T-shirt we had designed for Steve’s Bachelor Party with the logo “Sons of Shatner” on it – a reference to a “fan club” we had invented. She insisted that we get the T-shirts signed by Bill – something I was a bit fearful of, but we did not say no to Joyce! As it happened, Mr. Shatner loved the T-shirt and laughed hard when he signed them for us.

I will never forget this weekend – it was the last Shatner Weekend to be organized by Joyce and the first I had attended. Also, I will always credit Joyce as the person who made one of my dreams come true – to meet William Shatner. But something far more important grew from this Weekend — a long lasting solid friendship with a very dear person: Joyce.

The following year Joyce had retired from the William Shatner Connection due to ill health, but she was still passionately involved in the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. I flew out in April 2001 and, although there was no Shatner Weekend that year, I wanted to help Joyce with her part of the Horse Show. Joyce loved organizing the volunteers who came in Star Trek and Star Wars costumes for the parade. This parade brought so much delight to the children in the audience and made Joyce very happy. Joyce truly loved helping raise funds through the Shatner Connection to help Ahead With Horses, a charity that encourages physically or mentally challenged children to ride with horses. The mere act of helping these young children filled Joyce with great joy, something that she talked about very often.

Subsequently, I visited Joyce each year to help with the Horse Show and to see how she was doing. We shared many great stories – she would delight me with tales about her time on Talk Trek and all the Star Trek alumni she had met.

I could write much much more as I have so many happy memories of Joyce. We had a strong spiritual bond and a great chemistry. My wife Bozena also bonded with Joyce on our many visits. We both loved Joyce very very much and will miss her sorely. I remember in my last phone conversation with her, we were talking about the new Star Trek movie and I had told her that they had recast Kirk. She responded, “WHAT!!! They can’t recast Koik! There’s only ONE Koik” (I should point out, for those that never met Joyce, she may have lived in California for a number of years, but she never lost her New York accent!).

What more can I say…. our dear friend has moved on and left a lasting impression with us all. Our lives are richer for having known her. I will miss her smile, I will miss her laughter, but most of all, I will miss my friend