04/14/2026
Joan Alison Taylor
My sister Alison is a woman of great faith. She loved her Heavenly Father and His Son, her beloved older brother, Jesus Christ, with all her heart. She knew how to pray and receive answers to those prayers. She knew how to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost guiding her in her life and teaching her the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Alison was a dedicated student of the scriptures, and she especially knew and loved the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. She also loved the modern word of God delivered to us most often during General Conference every April and October through His prophets and apostles and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She listened to her favorite scriptures and talks from conference repeatedly and knew many passages by heart. These messages brought her peace and comfort during difficult times.
She loved attending the temple whenever health and circumstances permitted, but it was never as often as she wanted. She loved attending Church on Sundays and looked forward to partaking of the Sacrament in remembrance of our Savior, Jesus Christ. She was precise and faithful in keeping the Sabbath day holy because she wanted to honor the Lord. She would not spend a dime of her money until she had paid her tithing and her fast offerings—very much the widow’s mite the Lord referred to in the New Testament. She was that “widow”!
Long before our late prophet, President Russell M. Nelson admonished us to repent daily, Alison was already repenting daily. She strove with all diligence to keep the commandments of God, and yet, like all of us, she often fell short, and when she did, she was very concerned and spent hours on her knees “repenting, repenting, repenting” and pleading with the Lord for forgiveness. Sometimes I would tell her that she didn’t need to repent of this or that because it wasn’t her fault, or it wasn’t a sin, like when she couldn’t go to Church because she was too sick to go. She always wanted to be acceptable of the Lord.
Several Christ-like qualities were second nature to Alison, and she developed them to a remarkable degree. She couldn’t bear to see others suffer. She had so much empathy for those who were suffering, that it was almost as if it was happening to her. She never hesitated to share whatever she had with those around her even if it meant she would have to go without. Her compassion for the downtrodden often led her to areas of town where she knew there were homeless people on the streets so that she could give them bottles of water, a little something to eat, or even her favorite blanket or coat, if she thought they needed it. She looked past their greasy hair, unshaven faces, unwashed bodies and dirty clothes and saw a precious child of God who was “just down on their luck.” She reserved judgment and truly cared about them and hoped she could alleviate their struggles in a small way or at least show them that someone cared. She prayed frequently and fervently throughout the day and always sent heartfelt pleas to her Father in Heaven to bless people she knew or had seen or heard about who were struggling for any reason. She certainly displayed characteristics of the pure love of Christ when it came to the poor and needy.
My sister gave her all to her Church callings. When she was in our brother, Kent’s ward, she was called as a Primary teacher and Kent said she was probably among the best Primary teachers in the entire Church. She prepared for hours, and brought in visual aids, games, and anything she could think of to help the children understand the concepts of the gospel. She loved and prayed for each member of the class daily.
I don’t even remember my life without Alison. She was the president of my fan club and always thought more of me and my family than we deserved. She was often quick to notice the good in others and to pay sincere, heartfelt compliments.
Joan Alison Taylor was born on the 7th of May 1955 in what was then a remote small town called Kermanshah, 5th Province, Iran to Ina and Thelbert Taylor. The family moved to Tehran, Iran two weeks after her birth where they lived for the next five years. Alison was the sixth of the seven children in our family. Because our father was a foreign service officer for the US State Department, we traveled to many places in the Middle East, Africa and Europe and lived in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before we returned to the United States for about six years. We lived in Silver Spring, Maryland and moved briefly to West Covina and Azusa, California before moving back overseas to the beautiful island of Taiwan where Alison attended most of junior high and high school at Taipei American School. She was on the high school teen board and became its vice president. She also did some modeling. Alison excelled in traditional Chinese dance. She took private lessons and performed in many places including on local TV.
After graduation, Alison attended BYU-Provo for a time where she enjoyed a season of popularity and had many dates and fun outings. Family circumstances, including her parents’ divorce, made it impossible to continue her schooling. One of the biggest disappointments of her life was not having the opportunity to graduate from BYU.
Her oldest brother, Bert, and his wife Maria, who were stationed in Hawaii with the Marine Corps. invited Alison to live with them. While there she dated and became engaged to a Marine officer named David Anthony Galati, a recent convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They decided to postpone their marriage until Dave had been a member of the Church for a year so that they could be married and sealed in the temple. At the time, the Hawaii Temple in Laie was temporarily closed so they flew to Oakland, California and were married there on December 7, 1976. Dave was transferred to Houston, Texas, where they lived for several years before Dave was discharged from the Marine Corps. Their family soon included three children, Leslie Sonia Galati, Yvette Monique Galati and Mark Gregory Galati. Alison had extremely difficult pregnancies. She even had emergency surgery for kidney stones during her pregnancy with Yvette. Even though each pregnancy was excruciatingly hard, each baby was so precious to her.
When marriage difficulties arose, she and her three children went to Burlington, Vermont to stay with our mother and her second husband, Charles Green, for about four months. They lived in a cottage on Lake Champlain. Unfortunately, her marriage to Dave did not last, and they were divorced when their children were small.
Alison loved and cherished her children and worked hard to support them as a single mother. She made every sacrifice to nurture and provide for them, often working several jobs at a time, or working double shifts at one job. She began by working as a waitress for Steak and Ale in Texas where she lived. She excelled at making each customer’s dining experience a memorable one by giving them exceptional service.
Alison was a disciplined, hard worker, despite serious health challenges which had plagued her since she was a teenager. She gave more than 100% to all her employers. She was exceptional at customer service because she followed the Golden Rule given by Jesus to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and went beyond what was expected when helping customers or clients.
After the divorce, Alison left her home in Houston and took her three small children to stay temporarily with our mother and Charles who had moved from Vermont back to their home in Herndon, Virginia. Mom and Charles were always so good to Alison and her children. She grew close to Charles and called him Dad. She always loved and adored our mother and thought she was the best mother in the world. After our mother’s passing in 1998, Alison truly grieved her loss and never got over yearning for her and longed to see her again. The joy she must feel now as she is reunited with our mother must be great!
In Virginia, Alison soon had great jobs making good money working for an upscale French restaurant called L’Auberge Chez Francoise and then for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where she proudly waited on famous celebrities. She was able to provide a wonderful penthouse apartment overlooking a golf course for her children in the beautiful city of Reston, Virginia. Unfortunately, her children ran into some trouble, and the family needed a fresh start.
They moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Alison went to school at Glendale Community College. She took accounting classes to improve her employment options. She needed to move on to something besides waitressing. She had had several falls on slippery floors in the restaurant kitchens, and the cumulative effect of those falls plus another one in Phoenix where she tripped on some pavement, left her unable to walk. She desperately needed back surgery. Leslie remained in Arizona while she drove Yvette and Mark to Texas to stay with relatives while she went to Virginia to have back surgery where she could recuperate under Mom and Charles’ care. Unfortunately, her children were too big a challenge for the relatives, and she had to retrieve them and return to Phoenix before her back had time to fully heal. Her back bothered her and caused her pain for the rest of her life.
Alison’s story would not be complete without mentioning that due to circumstances, some of her grandchildren were given up for adoption. Alison said each time one of their precious babies were given away, it felt like a death in the family. They truly mourned the loss, and Alison prayed for each one every day of their lives.
Alison worked as an accountant for Arti-scapes for about 18 months. She then worked for Winona Research Company, an answering and telemarketing service. Her next opportunity came when a friend offered her a job as office manager and lead bookkeeper and accountant at her law firm. There her health suffered under the incessant strain of long hours, constant deadlines, and unending stress trying to please a demanding boss with unrealistic expectations. She was overworked to the point that after four years in that toxic environment, I was worried she would lose her life if she didn’t take a break. I finally convinced her to come to our home in Utah to stay with our family to rest and recuperate and regroup. We had a delightful time together for the next few months, before it became apparent that she would have a better situation with our brother, Kent, his wife, Rosemary, and their family in Frisco, Texas.
Kent and Rosemary nursed our sister back to health and over time she regained enough strength to return to work in the accounts receivable area at Safety-Kleen, an environmental company. She was at Safety-Kleen for about four years until the company was bought by another company and she was one of the many who were laid off when the merger took place. During this time Alison had surgeries for kidney stones, for a tumor in her neck and suffered other health issues. Kent and Rosemary took such wonderful care of her during these seemingly relentless trials.
When she became well enough to work again, our brother, Greg, suggested she get a job at Walmart, but she hesitated. That would be embarrassing! She was not excited about that at all. But since there weren't too many options available to her at the time, she secured a job at Wal-Mart, and it ended up being a very joyful experience. She surprised herself and loved working at Wal-Mart! She loved working with her fellow employees and especially with the customers and she became very popular with them. She spoke to and connected with each person who came through her line. She commented on their hair or outfit or on what good choices they had made shopping. She asked about their lives and health and often told them to pray about their problems and said sincerely that she would pray for them, too. She constantly bore witness of the reality of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ to all. Soon, her line was super long because everyone wanted to receive her compliments and hear her words of encouragement and faith. She went to work daily while suffering with constant pain and relentless health problems. She worked there for about five years until she couldn’t work anywhere anymore.
One of Alison’s favorite things was driving across our beautiful country, windows down, with her favorite heavy metal bands blasting. She loved the great guitar riffs in those songs. In recent years, those songs were replaced by hymns sung by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square because they soothed her spirit. She loved a good adventure movie and especially loved Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Alison loved to be warm. She loved fleecy or flannel pajamas and warm, fun socks, especially Christmas socks. She loved wearing her favorite perfumes. She loved Christmas and delighted in having a tree with beautiful Christmas lights up most of the year. She loved driving around looking at Christmas lights during the season. My sister loved chocolate milk and orange juice. She loved being pampered while getting a manicure and especially a pedicure.
Alison loved her art décor so much that she decided to use the living room as her bedroom so she could be surrounded by the beauty of her art. Our mother was an amazing interior decorator and while living in Asia for so many years, she honed her skills to the level of a professional in Asian art decor. Alison also loved Asian art, especially the pieces she inherited from our parents, and through careful shopping, she amassed an impressive collection of stunning art. She followed her mother’s example and decorated in a most pleasing way, turning her homes into beautiful abodes. She had an eye for placing things and could have been an interior decorator like our mother. It was one of her many talents. For years Alison worked at Pier One imports and loved seeing the new merchandise come in and snagged beautiful pieces of décor whenever she could afford them.
The thing Alison hated the most was spiders. Her fear for those creepy crawlers was to the point where it could be called a phobia. They terrified her and she wanted nothing to do with them. Cats on the other hand brought her great happiness. Alison loved animals, especially deer and cats. When her children were growing up, they always had cats, sugar gliders and other little furry animals in their home. She extended her compassion to them and taught her children to lovingly care for their animals. She loved cats so much that holding a cat or even looking at a picture of cats could alleviate a migraine headache!
Alison loved to give and receive gifts and little acts of kindness and never forgot the gestures of friendship given to her, even the small ones. She was a grateful person and appreciated any act of service and never failed to express it to the giver and to her Heavenly Father. She was always free with her compliments. One thing she hated was unfairness and favoritism. Whenever she had something, she always made sure that she included everyone around her because it hurt her feelings when she was left out, and she never wanted to be the reason someone else felt slighted. As a mother, she diligently made sure her children were treated fairly.
President Henry B. Eyring, a counsellor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said the following in a General Conference talk in October 2015:
I stood next to my father in a hospital room. My mother, his wife of 41 years, lay on the bed. We had watched her for hours. We began to see the lines of pain disappear from her face. The fingers of her hands, which had been clenched into fists, relaxed. Her arms came to rest at her sides.
The pains of decades of cancer were ending. I saw on her face a look of peace. She took a few short breaths, then a gasp, and then lay still. We stood there waiting to see if another breath would come.
Finally, Dad said quietly, “A little girl has gone home.”
He shed no tears. That was because the Holy Ghost had long before given him a clear picture of who she was, where she came from, what she had become, and where she was going. The Spirit had testified to him many times of a loving Heavenly Father, of a Savior who had broken the power of death, and of the reality of the temple sealing he shared with his wife and family.
The Spirit had long before assured him that her goodness and faith had qualified her for the return to a heavenly home where she would be remembered as a wonderful child of promise and be welcomed home with honor.
My dear sister Alison has been wanting to go home to her Heavenly Father for a while now. I’m sure her passing has been a joyous occasion as she is welcomed home with honor. We will all miss her very much.
Alison is survived by her three children, Leslie Sonia Galati, Yvette Monique Galati and Mark Gregory Galati, her grandchildren, Jessie and Skyler, her siblings, Russell Kent Taylor (Patricia) Jon Gregory Taylor, Leslie Diane Taylor Dawson (Rick), Mark Edward Taylor, Scott Alan Taylor and many nieces and nephews.
Written by Leslie Diane Taylor Dawson
April 14, 2026
View Joan Alison Taylor's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.
