Perpetually in debt, with a weakness for catalogues, she held down multiple cleaning jobs at the same time including the Rovers Return and Sunliners Travel Agency. She hoped for romance with Alec Gilroy, but he sacked her from Sunliners after catching her stealing from the till.
Joyce died suddenly in 1997 when she was hit by a car driven by Tony Horrocks while out walking her dog, Scamper.