No regrets for traveller, volunteer
Published Thursday November 6th, 2008
ROTHESAY - Having spent a good portion of her 85 years helping others, much-loved world traveller and community volunteer E. June Brown of Kennebecasis Park had no regrets when it came time to say her good-byes to family.
"At the end, she said, 'Don't cry for me. I've had a darned good life,' " her daughter, Lynda Anderson of Rosedale, B.C., said Wednesday.
"I don't think she regretted one day of it."
Brown, who was widowed for two decades, died from pneumonia in hospital in Saint John on Oct. 28.
Anderson remembers her as the "best mom in the world" and as a go-getter.
"(Mom) was outgoing, fun to be around, humorous, very knowledgeable - and she had a heart of gold," she said. "She was involved in everything going on, from the PTA, to the church and all the women's and children's groups, a member of the IODE and in four bridge clubs. And she pretty well ran the four."
It was just a couple of years ago that she became a member of the Port of Saint John's Meet and Greet Committee for cruise ships. She also liked to swim in the river near her home right up until it snowed.
"There was no dust growing on her. She never sat still," Anderson said. "(And) if she was sitting, she had her knitting needles going. She knit thousands of baby bonnets for every baby that came out of hospital and she used to make knitted toques, tonnes of them, for Portage," a residential treatment facility for adolescents with substance abuse problems.
Born Eunice June Holden in Liverpool, N.S., on Nov. 17, 1922, she was a daughter of the late Charles P.P. Holden and Jean Dorothy (Drew) Holden.
She studied nursing in Saint John and met her husband, Andrew, who was in the Royal Canadian Navy at the time, while serving with the Canadian Women's Army Corps in Halifax. The couple married in October 1944 and, after the Second World War, raised their children in Ontario and British Columbia before moving to Saint John 25 years ago to care for Brown's widowed mother.
Brown is survived by two children, Anderson and her older brother, Charles Brown, of Chilliwack, B.C.; one brother, Peter of Kanata, Ont.; eight grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
It was after the loss of her husband two decades ago, Anderson said, that her mother began her world travels.
"She did 31 countries in 60 days with a tour group," and then, with Anderson often along as a companion, made numerous trips to exotic locations, and took a cruise to Alaska.
"She never went anywhere without her Tilley hat," said Anderson. "And it was buried with her (at Ocean View Memorial Gardens) for her final journey."
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