Remembering June Bug

Today is my mother’s birthday.  Were she still living on earth, June Powers Brinkley would be turning 91.  As time goes by, I find myself recalling the oddest things about “June Bug.”

1. She had the loudest, most ear-piercing whistle you can imagine.

This was a useful skill for a farm girl who had to call the cows home.  It was also good for getting her sister’s attention if they were working on opposite ends of a field.

In her final years, Mom suffered from Alzheimers’ disease and lived in a memory care unit at Oakmont at Gordon Park in Bristol, Virginia.  It was just a few minutes’ drive from my condo.  Like her neighbors, June Bug wore a safety-alert pendant, but she never really got the hang of using it.  When she wanted a refill on her Diet Coke, for example, she simply blasted out a whistle that could be heard on the far side of the building.  Thankfully, the staff at Oakmont found Mom delightful and enjoyed her feisty spirit.

2. She could always find four-leaf clovers.

As a child, we lived on a farm in Marion, Virginia and had a large grassy yard. Whenever I’d plop down in the ground, my mom could walk by, look down, and pluck a four-leaf clover.  The interesting thing is that she was legally blind in one eye and had poor distance vision in the other.  Amazing!

3. She could tell who was calling whenever the phone rang.

Long before caller ID was invented, Mom announced who was on the line before anyone picked up the receiver.  It was uncanny.  Her mother–my granny—lived with us in her final years and never ceased to be amazed.  “That June is a witch!” Granny declared, in the nicest possible way.  I suspect, though, that Mom just had a keen understanding of human nature, especially of the humans in her circle of influence.  June Bug simply predicted who would be most likely to call whom at a particular time.

4. She had an impeccable sense of mis-direction. 

June Bug’s internal compass pointed to the South Pole instead of the North.  Whenever we were traveling together as a family, Dad always drove and Mom rode shotgun.  Those were the days after stagecoaches but before GPS.

When we came to an unfamiliar turn, Dad would turn to Mom and ask her which way we should go.  But if Mom said, “Go left,” then Dad would turn right—in the exact opposite direction.  This always made Mom mad, and it’s a good thing she wasn’t literally riding shotgun.  But inevitably, we discovered that Dad had chosen correctly.  He just turned Mom’s compass upside down.

Oddly enough, someone once gifted my family with a clock that had a backwards dial.  The 12 and the 6 were in the correct position, but the other numbers flipped as in a mirror-image.  The 1 took the place of the 11, the 2 traded with the 10, and so forth.  Accordingly, the minute hands on this peculiar clock turned counter-clockwise.

This was a source of amusement to visitors and frustration to family members.  But for Mom, it was a proper working clock, and she it hung prominently in the kitchen.  Nevertheless, June Bug was the only person who could tell time by the backwards dial.

I suspect that if we thought about it, we could identify curious traits about each of our loved ones.  I wonder if God does the same.  What kind of mind designs each snowflake to be unique?  A mind that delights in the sheer abundance of variety!  How much more so would the LORD create people with their individual personalities and characteristics!  Even identical twins are not carbon copies.

Jesus says that “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7).  What kind of a Creator pays attention to such miniscule details?  Even I haven’t counted the hairs on my own head.  But if I had, the number would constantly be changing through shedding and regrowth.

As I remember June Bug, I celebrate the delightful, unique person God made her to be.  And then I look around and see an entire world full of interesting people!

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