Obituary of Joselyn Rita Pearsall

Bar Harbor — Joselyn Rita Pearsall died quietly and gently on the summer solstice, June 21, 2011, at the Blue Hill Memorial Hospital after a long illness from cancer. Joselyn was born in New York City on April 26, 1946. She was the daughter of William Pearsall and Jeannine Briere Pearsall. After graduating from City College of New York in l970, she moved to Princeton, N.J., where she lived until l998. Her multifaceted career included working as a runner in the pit at the New York City Stock Exchange, a personal shopper for Macy’s in New Jersey, a gardener, a reiki practitioner, reflexologist, and owner of a crystal shop featuring a vast array of extremely high quality crystals and gem stones. Upon moving to Maine, she worked for a brief time at a nursery where her love of plants and trees literally blossomed. Shortly thereafter she became disabled and curtailed her activities to nurturing her own garden and plants, which she generously bestowed upon her many friends. Joselyn became known on Mount Desert Island for her wisdom and knowledge of medicinal plants that could be used for healing and well-being. She generously shared her knowledge, free of charge, to anyone interested in learning. Her apartment in Bar Harbor was filled with plants and trees in various stages of growth; she could never let a seed go to waste, or a seedling untended. Joselyn was an original person, defined not by the various jobs that she had but by the curiosity of her mind and the deep relationships she formed both with life-long friends and in nature. She had a distinct laugh and a face that could be read, (positive or negative) from a distance. She sometimes had a tendency to pontificate on topics about which she cared deeply including politics, music and living a healthier more organic life. Her passion for color expressed itself in a unique art form, which she called “coloring.” She created abstract expressions of strong, vibrant colors in motion. She generously gave her “colorings” to all her friends. The artist she most admired and identified with was Vincent Van Gough. Joselyn is survived by her devoted sisters, Jeannine and Janice Pearsall; her brother, William Pearsall; and her nephew Patrick Pearsall. She is much beloved and will be deeply missed by her hand-chosen “family” in Maine, including her best friend of 45 years, Ann Anda of Bar Harbor; her neighbors and friends at The Café This Way; the Osborne/Perkins family of Brooksville; and countless friends here and in New York who loved and cared for and about her. Joselyn made a lasting impression in large, small and often inexplicable ways on many people’s lives. Her magic lives on. A small memorial gathering will be held later in the summer to celebrate her life. Joselyn