June Alice Correia
October 18, 1958 – May 14, 2016
Some people have a gift for expressing in words how to live one’s faith. Others just do it, and in their doing they speak volumes. June Correia was one of the latter.
June grew up in Russells Mills, South Dartmouth, MA. She met her husband, Steven, while in high school, and they were married in 1979 in New Bedford’s Seaman’s Bethel. Steve and June began attending New Bedford Meeting when their oldest daughter Larissa was a newborn in 1985. Steve became clerk and was committed to keeping the meeting open, though June was waiting for more children to enrich the First Day School. After their daughter Aliza was born in 1988, June began searching the area for an unprogrammed meeting with a First Day program and chose Westport. Steve, wanting to worship with his family, soon joined them. In 1993 they transferred their membership to Westport Monthly Meeting. The 3rd bench on the north wall of our meeting house has been, and continues to be, where the Correia family worships with us.
June quickly became an integral member of our community despite working full-time as a bank teller while raising two children. Her faithful attendance at monthly meeting for business, potlucks, cleanup days, and our annual Book Sale’s bake table, were all outward displays of her deep commitment to our spiritual community. Over the years she served on almost every committee, including Nominating, Ministry and Counsel, Religious Education, and Finance. A gentle and patient First Day School teacher, she touched a generation of children who loved her dearly for her playfulness, humility, and kindness. She served on Finance Committee and for over a decade was one of our Trustees – an appropriate title for our recognition of her sensibilities, monetary skills, and commitment to the life in the Spirit. She participated in the life of Sandwich Quarter and was a faithful attender at NEYM Sessions where she is remembered for her gentle heart and her grounded and prepared presence at business meeting.
June loved her family. Her daughters Larissa and Aliza were the joyful focus of her life. Schoolwork was their first priority, but she also urged them to engage in outside activities, musical groups, and sports teams. Their lives were full to overflowing. She encouraged laughter and silliness, while also nurturing a life of intentionality, discipline, and faithfulness to the testimonies of Friends. She believed that thoughts turn into words, words turn into actions, and actions turn into habits. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 37, June raised her daughters to be not only thoughtful and loving adults, but also competent and independent people who could do their own laundry, live within a budget, and face adversities with patience and inner strength. Her primary concern was that her daughters be okay, with or without her.
June savored the simple things in life like warm cookies, chocolate frappes, Disney movies, a perfect cup of tea, and a well-done manicure. Beauty could be found in organized closets as well as in nature. Her clothing and personal appearance were a way of celebrating life. She loved traditions. Most of the ones that we have at Westport Meeting were started or actively perpetuated by June, including our Easter Egg Hunt and the giving of small, wrapped gifts to every child on Christmas Eve. She found meaning in angels and frequently gave representations of them as gifts to her family and friends. Angels We Have Heard on High, sung with playful, twinkling eyes, will always be “June’s song.” She loved music, and throughout most of her life, sang with heartfelt joy. When what turned out to be Multiple System Atrophy took her voice, she was comforted by Steve’s banjo and ukulele playing.
With grit and grace, June lived with the cumulative effects of her disease for over 20 years. She rarely complained or dwelt on the question of “Why me?” The last few years of her life were spent at Brandon Woods Nursing Home, where she and her family created an extraordinary community of residents and healthcare workers through their daily displays of kindness, compassion, and honesty. As a way to keep connected, a small group of women from the meeting and community visited with her monthly. They became known as the Knitting Group, but more than any hand-work, what was created were friendships and love. June’s smile, twinkling eyes, courage, and fierce determination to live each day with heart and hope touched everyone.
Over the course of many years, June created a large, beautiful cross-stitch of the Shaker Tree of Life. She stitched through business meetings, committee meetings, and family nights watching television. She worked on it, sometimes undoing mistakes, other times adjusting the finished design to incorporate small errors, with care, heart, and seemingly endless patience. She lived her life with that same extraordinary determination and grace, continuing to channel love to everyone around her until the day of her death at the age of 57. Her ministry was in the way she lived each day, reminding each of us to pay attention to the essence of life, to savor the sweetness, and to walk in the Light with courage, trust, and love.
Memorial Minute approved 4.9.17