Meet Mama June 

Her Dream Came True! 

   About 6 years ago, my wife Marge and I mingled with a dozen or so people in a friendly, mobile home community in Bradenton. It was time for snowbirds to "fly" home. 

   These folks were lingering with their special friend, June, who was about to leave for good after decades of wintering in Florida. No one was in a rush to say their last goodbyes. 

   We brought her home with us for a week or so. We celebrated her birthday, March 30. Remember the date. On April Fool's day, June got me good. Then she flew home to Buffalo. 

God provides friends 

   In 1972 Marge was alone, far from home, a struggling social worker, but rich in faith. During a Tuesday night Bible study she met June and Barb. The Lord told her silently, These are your new friends.  

   A few coworkers and their husbands enlarged her circle. June and her husband Ralph - who had grown children of their own - took special interest. They attended church with her, and took Marge out for pizza. When Marge offered to pay, Ralph said, "Next time." Always "Next time." 

   Ralph looked after her car. June was at her side too many times to list here. 

   Years later, after two years in Bible school, Marge was employed praying for callers at the "prayer tower," Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. She needed surgery. June in Buffalo had no obligation to assist. She boarded a bus, needed a hospital herself in Cleveland, then caught another bus for Tulsa, where Marge had driven herself to the hospital. 

New adventures 

   June was not a worrier. She often said, "whatever." If she had a difficulty, she labeled it "my new adventure." Marge called her "Mama June." 

   My introduction to June and Ralph began in 1990, the year we married in Pittsburgh. They along with Barb and her husband Dave, whom I knew in high school - small world - were among our guests. Ralph had the honor of "father" giving away the bride. In six short weeks my office closed and I was jobless with no clue. 

   Six months later we moved to South Carolina, then retired in Florida. That made it easy to visit Mama June in Bradenton, where she worked at Mixon's Fruit Farm, a favorite stop for vacationers. After Ralph passed we brought June home for a week of R&R each spring. She "liked to go shopping" in Marge's closet. 

   We recall one of our devotions. After we closed our Bibles and prayed, June exclaimed, "This was sooooo wonderful!" Her spirit was more alive than mine. 

   She bought a computer and was determined to master it. June used it well enough to read Views by the Sea until her eyesight said enough.     

   Mama June wanted to stay in her own home. No senior living! Her son and daughter accommodated her wish. 

Next in line 

   This winter June told Marge on the phone she was "ready to go." "I'm next in line," she liked to say. She went to bed praying the Lord would take her in her sleep. And when he didn't, she was disappointed to wake up in the morning. 

   A few weeks ago, June told her daughter Jennifer and also Marge about a dream, or vision, of an angel, of being "there," and feeling such great love. She retold this to Jennifer, adding, "I'll never be the same." 

   You may be skeptical. We don't think this sounds like an hallucination. 

   March 30, her 98th birthday. Mama June was finally next in line. Early Wednesday morning she entered her long promised, new adventure. For all we know, she might be saying,

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.

Isaiah 61:10

   June has fruit from the tree of life that is nothing like Mixon's, and her garments are equally superior to what she found in Marge's closet.  

    💗