June’s Eulogy

June Gardner, Betsey’s Cousin

Betsey and I share a similar start, birth in south Florida, where I grew up.

I was 5 the first time I remember meeting her.

She came to visit, this sophisticated woman with the latest hair style and pale pink lipstick. She spoke in a sweet tone and a lifelong friendship began when she taught me how to dance the Pony, a skill I still possess.

She was a wonder then and remains one to me still.

We are the bookends of a generation whose women are strong willed and each a force of nature in her own way.

Thinking of this immediately brought to mind the time she came over to England to stay with me a at a British friends house in Oxford. In an antique shoppe there, we found a beautiful carved wood Victorian plant stand, 3’ in height. Betsey bought it and announced she would carry back on the plane.

“Silly me,” I asked incredulously, “do you think you can get this through check in and security?” Her eyes became steely. Her chin went down and with a tight smile on her lips as she said, “Oh, yes”.

As the matriarch of our generation, Betsey blazed the path for her 3 brothers and my 2 siblings. Little did I realize what a huge part of my life she would become. Her love and care giving me a sense of security, becoming an anchor throughout my life, a friend to go to in celebration and in crisis,

I lived with Betsey after graduating college, taken in and given refuge while figuring out the next steps in life. I would continue to weave in and out of visits there, one of many whose lives included periods of stay on Colbourne Crescent – the world was filled with those who had a key to that door.

It is a devastating reality that Betsey is no longer here to join me in the continuation on my path through life, .a companion and counsel sorely missed, but she will always, ALWAYS, be with me.