She sold her engagement ring and began a lifetime of seeing the world.
It all started with an ending: a broken engagement and a broken heart, back in January 1956. That’s when Joy Fox, then 20 years old and living in the small riverside town of Wivenhoe, England, began to consider the world beyond her village.
Fox came from humble beginnings and a grim World War Two childhood, and she had never travelled. But she recalled the stories her mother had shared of her voyages to Egypt, China and India with Fox’s father, who was a Pipe Major with the Royal Scots.
Fox’s older brother Alan had often talked of his own trips to Venice and the beauty of the city. With those bits of inspiration, Fox, weepy over lost love, decided her time had come.
She sold her engagement ring and with the proceeds embarked on her lifelong passion for exploring the world.”I have no clue how I got myself from that village to Dover and onto the ferry,” said Fox. “But then I took the train across France and Switzerland to Italy. And that was my first taste of being away from home.”Now 89 years old, Fox has yet to slow down.
She continues to explore the world with as much relish and enthusiasm as her 20-year-old self did. That boundless spirit of adventure recently earned Fox the JourneyWoman Evelyn Hannon Award for Solo Travel, from JourneyWoman, a global organisation dedicated to promoting solo travel for women over 50.
The award is an acknowledgement of a person who, ever since that first trip from Wivenhoe decades ago, has led a life of adventure.
bbc
