30 DECEMBER 2023
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated for June Miller at Immaculate Conception Parish in Claflin, KS. The parish's pastor, Fr. Benjamin Martin presided. Fr. Terrance Klein, former pastor, was also present.
Never Unprepared |
June Miller |
Fr Terrance Klein |
30.XII.2023 |
Isaiah 25: 6a, 7-9 Revelation 21: 1-5a, 6b-7 John 17: 24-26
Grandma June was never unprepared. Some examples: If her young family was going to the lake on Saturday, she would have packed enough hamburgers and hotdogs to feed her ten kids as well as the neighborhood stowaways.
And armed with her notebooks, Grandma June was never caught unprepared for Christmas. Five hundred red velvet cakes could be delivered to doorsteps. Indeed, in her later years, Hallmark planned its production of the Twelve Days of Christmas Ornament Collection based upon Grandma’s previous purchases.
If you need further evidence of June’s preparedness, consult the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Back when pressure cookers were all the rage, she ordered forty of them. They were delivered in one shipment to her front porch. But that was right after one had been used in the Boston Marathan Bombing. Why did an elderly lady in the middle of Kansas need forty pressure cookers?
Yes, throughout her life, Grandma June was prepared. She knew when to throw the kids in the station wagon to buy clothes; she knew that Betty Hickle, whose brood rivaled her own, would want to go along; and she knew who could get by wearing an older brother or sister’s hand-me-downs.
So, it’s no surprise that June was prepared for death as well. Indeed, these last few months, she asked a lot of questions, of me and of her family, about death and the life to come.
Did we think that she would go to heaven? That one wasn’t hard.
Was death frightening? No, the Lord Jesus would be with her. She needn’t worry. He would take care of everything.
What would heaven be like? Was she ready for that?
I think that Grandma June was ready for heaven, which Isaiah described as a mountain “where the Lord of host will provide for all peoples” (25: 6). Indeed, that heaven isn’t so distant from her life on earth. Why do I say that? Because, just as he said that he would, the Good Lord gave, and June accepted, a life that prepared her for paradise.
I have made known to them your name
And I will make it known
That the love with which you loved me
May be in them and I in them (Jn 17: 26).
June never knew a moment of rest when she was raising her children and, to some extent, her grandchildren. She could hold a kid in one arm and vacuum with the other. Becky once found June, sitting up at two in the morning, all alone. She asked her mother what she was doing. “Enjoying the peace and quiet,” June said. But GG loved her never-let-go life. The only thing that could make her unhappy was something that saddened her kids.
And let’s not pretend. The ten B’s—Bill, Becky, Beth, Belinda, Barbara, Brad, Brian, Brock, Bobette, and Bridget—were no Brady Bunch. Raising them meant squeezing their open mouths to keep them still and shut in church. It meant personally brushing their teeth when they deliberately did it wrong. It could even mean bagging up Brian’s uncared for clothes and throwing them in the garage, or June filling-in the open bodices of her girls with ruffles and extra lace.
June lived a life surrounded by her loved ones, a circle bigger than her immediate family. So many people have said, like Randy Kempke and Lee Farmer, that June was a second mom to them. It’s interesting that she gained the moniker “Grandma June” when she helped in the daycare. June loved her never-let-go life. Towards the end of that life June didn’t want to be alone. She needed the sound of nearby conversation to rest and to sleep.
For the most part, the Good Lord is so gentle with us. He finds something we’re good at, and he gives it to us. Grandma June was good at loving lots of folks, all the time. And that’s what the Lord gave her to do. Maybe that’s why the Good Lord let her last day on earth be just that: a celebration of her beloved Christmas at home, surrounded by her family.
But in the end, the Lord gently carries us over the water, more than once in life, and plants us on the shore we dread. After all, we become who we were meant to be both by thriving in our talents and by facing our fears.
So, in her sleep, the Lord Jesus gently woke June and asked her to look around. Her brown paper bag and toothbrush were always ready for an adventure with loved ones. June didn’t need them. She discovered that she had entered heaven. It wasn’t some lofty, lonely, and ethereal place. It was home, much like the one she had fashioned on earth. She was surrounded again by her loved ones. Bill and Bob held her hands. Her parents smiled down on the one waking into resurrection. And
The one who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end (Rv 21: 5-7).
June has celebrated her last Christmas on earth. Tomorrow, this woman, who lived, breathed, and sweated family life will celebrate her first feast day in heaven. And what day is it tomorrow, in heaven? The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
God calls some of us to forsake family for the sake of the kingdom, but God calls most of us to embrace it for the sake of that same kingdom and the salvation of our souls. The woman who was born Fairy June Seymour, back in 1930 in Tonganoxie, Kansas, the little starlet—she recorded a Christmas song at age sixteen—who was called upon to sing and play the piano at so many functions, became June Miller, the Claflin housewife and mother of ten, then Grandma June, the matriarch of the Millers, and the uncrowned queen of Claflin.
She didn’t need a crown. She gave such attention to those who encountered her. Just to be in her presence made you feel fit to meet a queen. As Rita Todd wrote, “June was the most loving person I have ever known. She was a shining light, and I am so fortunate to have had her in my life.”
Yes. Her family and friends will grieve in the days to come, because they don’t know what it means to live without June. They will grieve, but they need not fear. The Lord whom June loved and served is so gentle with us. He will lead us through the valleys, over the mountains, and across the streams of life.
Now the question is, are we prepared? If, perhaps, you worry that you don’t know the Good Lord well enough, if you’re concerned that you might not recognize him when he enters your life to lead you, picture Grandma June in your mind. Jesus is like June, or rather, June became like Jesus.
Preparing for heaven is really preparing for a person. It’s preparing ourselves for Jesus. And you know him. You can trust him. You met him when he gave you June.
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