Her Umbrella Premiere Issue Fall 2015

THEJOY
FUND
PROJECT
MARGARETDABBS
TODAY YOU MIGHT CATCH A GLIMPSE OF
JOY HUNT EDEN GENTLY PEDALING HER
FLOWER-COVERED, LIME GREEN HIGHLIGHTED
BICYCLE HOME FROM THE MARKET IN MOBILE-
VIBRANT FRESH FLOWERS CHEERFULLY PERCHED IN
THE BASKET AND A THOUGHTFUL SMILE ON HER
EXPRESSIVE FACE.
Just three years ago, Ash
Wednesday 2012, while she was on a
ski\ snowboard vacation in Aspen,
Colorado, thirty-seven year old Joy
went into sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)
while shopping in the Aspen
Emporium & Flying Circus. In what
she describes as a ?series of good
fortune,? shop owners Shae Singer
and Shirley Tipton responded
without hesitation, calling 911 and
administering CPR while waiting for
the paramedics, who happened to be
only two doors down from the shop,
to arrive. Revived by swift use of an
Automated External Defibrillator
(AED), Joy was taken to Aspen Valley
Hospital where she stayed a day
waiting for weather conditions to
allow a Flight for Life jet to transport
her to the University of Colorado
Hospital in Denver. After a series of
discouraging complications, she was
not expected to survive.
However, Joy woke up after four days
in a medically induced coma and
made significant progress which
paved the way for surgical placement
of an Automatic Implantable
Cardioverter Defibrillator (AICD). Ten
days later, she was released. Since
Joy was not allowed to fly, she and
her husband, Kenny, left Colorado in
blizzard conditions in a rental car and
arrived in Mobile after an intense
four-day expedition. She returned to
the hospital in Mobile on two
occasions- once for treatment of
blood clots and another for a heart
arrhythmia episode. Eighteen
months of medication trials finally
resulted in the discovery of the right
combination and Joy continued her
journey to recovery.
After her close dance with death,
Joy reflected on the first part of her
life and knew she had to begin
reinventing it without losing precious
time. Living in Pensacola from two
until she graduated from Tate High
School, Joy?s growing up years were
spent relishing life on the Gulf Coastendless
sunshine and year-round
water access for water skiing and
wake boarding. Athletic and
endlessly energetic, she also played
tennis, softball, and enjoyed music
with the flute and piccolo. This child
of the sun became a child of the
snow when she spent her college
years at Boise State University in
Idaho and aggressively took up skiing
and snowboarding.
College
graduation
accomplished, Joy
lived in
Cambridge,
England, for a few
years and then
moved to Georgia.
In addition to
working in sales
training for
financial
institution
employees, she
began preparing
Repurposing
A Life
Directly
FromThe
Heart
for triathlons. In 2003, Joy competed
in her first one- running ten miles,
cycling forty miles, and swimming one
half mile. All these years, she felt the
relentless tug of the Gulf Coast and
Premier Issue Fall 2015 / Her Umbrella 14