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Donor Highlight:
June and Bill McGeehon

Blending Lives to Share a New Love

In the year 2000 June and Bill McGeehon celebrated the new millennium by getting married. Although their life experience had given them a level of wisdom most couples don’t have on their wedding day, June and Bill’s love for each other and their plans for a future together were as fresh and hopeful as any newlyweds’ dreams could be.

Living in the same community, the pair had known each other for years. They were aware of one another’s joys and struggles. After a divorce in her early thirties, June raised two children as a single parent while working full-time and going to night school to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. With a deep Christian faith and a positive outlook June’s life was busy, but satisfying. Still, the stress of divorce took its toll, and June was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that can cause inflammation, pain and damage to various parts of the body.

Undaunted, June took charge of her health care regimen while maintaining an active life. A few years after her diagnosis she began working as a secretary for the Missionary Oblates. When she later took a position at Saint Louis University Hospital, she continued working on the weekends as a receptionist at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. In 1993 June became the full-time Events Coordinator at the Shrine, and today is Executive Secretary to Fr. John Madigan, O.M.I. and the Missionary Association.

Bill’s life was involved with the same themes of family, work and faith. For many years he cared for his first wife until she died in 1995, after a long illness. He worked as a business manager at a large auto dealership. He, too struggled with a chronic illness, a mild form of kidney disease. And he longed for a way to deepen his faith and for a place of worship where he felt at home.

After Bill’s wife died, he and June got to know one another better as his friends (who also were June’s neighbors) invited him to dinners and social events. In time, June and Bill learned they had many common interests and their friendship and relationship grew.

On the day he and June married, Bill, who had not been raised as a Catholic, found the faith community he was looking for. “On the day we married in the Catholic Church, I felt something I had always dreamed of,” Bill explains. “I just felt I was where I always wanted to be.”

A few months later Bill completed the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and became a Catholic. He and June are active members of St. Nicholas Parish in O’Fallon, Illinois and serve on the board of the parish’s group for seniors. Now retired, Bill enjoys a round of golf whenever Midwest weather permits. Together he and June enjoy exercise, gardening and reading, as well as spending time with June’s grandsons, Jacob and Mitchell. They also take time for daily prayer, opening their hearts to God’s guidance and praying for the special intentions of friends and family.

“Our faith has grown in ways I never imagined,” June says. “We take more time to read Scripture and the works of spiritual writers and theologians. Our prayer life has grown, therefore our relationship with God has grown.”

While the Missionary Oblates have long been an important part of June’s life, Bill has welcomed the Oblates into his life as well. Together June and Bill have an Oblate Charitable Gift Annuity, make annual donations and serve as members of the Oblates’ Ambassadors group, promoting the Oblates’ ministries to local businesspersons.

“A long time ago, I was reminded by one of the Oblates that I don’t work FOR them, I work WITH them,” June says. “The Oblates encourage laypersons to be an active part of their ministries, serving the poorest of the poor. Bill and I believe in the work the Oblates are doing. We feel very blessed and we want to share what we have with those less fortunate.”

By their commitment to one another and to their faith, June and Bill demonstrate a love that is both wise and fresh.

“We’ve learned that life’s details are not nearly as urgent as they once seemed to be. We’ve grown to trust more and more in God’s will and to just enjoy life one day at a time. That’s gotten a lot easier as we’ve gotten older,” June says with a laugh.

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