Joan MacKillop Freeman was born to John Angus Mackillop and Dorothy Jamieson Mackillop on September 2, 1943 at the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. She and her three younger siblings Peggy, Dotty and John Jr. grew up in Cambridge. Joan's father was a doctor and served in WWII, and her mother worked as a nurse while raising the family.

As a child, Joan was treated like royalty by her devoted twin aunts, Wheenie and Naomi Jamieson. The aunties gave her the nickname, "Queen Bee", a nod to Joan's firm ideas about how things should be. She was an outward fashionista from an early age but was disorganized in her own childhood bedroom, which her sisters recall being piled with stylish clothing and dirty teacups secreted under the bed.

Her parents were keen that she attend medical school after graduating from Cambridge Latin High School, but Joan had other ideas and majored in English Literature at Tufts. Much like her eventual husband John, Joan had a lifelong itch to travel and was looking to do just that after graduation.

In 1966 Joan met John D. Freeman (who passed away in October) when he pulled up on his motorcycle to Cronins's, the Harvard Square pub where she was waitressing. They were married the next year at the Harvard Chapel in Harvard Yard and then set out the next day for 12 years of working and travelling in Latin America.

Their daughter Nina was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1973, and three years later Stephanie was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. The family's extensive travels across Latin America yielded a bounty of artifacts, including textiles, retablos, Incan ceremonial knives and quipus, procured in remote villages. Joan never met an open-air market she didn't like and would spend hours perusing and haggling with local merchants with enthusiastic "Portañol".

Of equal importance to Joan as anyone else in the family were her beloved cats, her constant companions throughout her life. Once, in highly seismic Peru, a tremor shook the house in the middle of the night. Nina and Stephanie blearily made their way out of the house to the appointed meeting spot to find Joan already there, a cat under each arm.

In 1986, the family (including an assortment of cats) moved back to Concord, MA. While adjusting to life back in New England, Joan experimented with different jobs ranging from teaching English, pressing apples, selling furniture, and arranging flowers, a business she started with a friend which turned into a life-long interest and revealed true talent and creativity.

Joan joined the development office at United Way which led to opportunities in major gifts and development. She raised millions of dollars at Harvard Medical School, Boston College and Brigham and Women's Hospital, from which she retired. When not working, Joan spent countless hours carpooling to ballet and flute lessons and sports practices.

In 2000, she and John purchased their beloved home on the Penobscot Bay in Brooksville, ME. It sits on a peninsula overlooking the Bagaduce River, and over the years they restored the very old farmhouse. Maine was their happy place, and they had many years of friendship and peace in a quiet, lovely part of the world.

Joan was always on the go, indulging a wide range of interests including travel, reading, gardening, ikebana flower arranging, baking, antiques collecting and the arts. Her interests were fickle, and her daughters recall short-lived but intense phases of bagel-making, chair caning, cake decorating, needle point, topiary-making and elaborate party designs and decorations. "Bored" was not in her vocabulary. We will always remember Joan through those interests and her resolute attention to detail: the perfectly set table, the thoughtfully chosen place setting, and inspired flower arrangements.

John and Joan cherished and loved to give back to the community, Joan enjoyed Sunday services at St. Francis by the Sea in Blue Hill, hosting fundraisers for the Baroque Orchestra of Maine (BOOM), and volunteer planning at the Bucks Harbor Yacht Club.

Joan will be missed tremendously by her daughters Nina Freeman Brown (Alex) and Stephanie Cady (Matthew), her four grandchildren, her siblings Peggy, Dottie and John and brother-in-law, Geoff and sister-in-law, Marjie. She will also be missed by Frankie and Alice, the last two in a great line of cats, who have been lovingly taken in by new parents.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Joan's name to The ARK Pet Shelter in Cherryfield, ME.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.