Three Bradford women – two daughters and their mother – sat down
with The Era Friday to talk about celebrating Mother’s Day together
for the first time in more than 30 years.

June Giles and her mother, Josephine Den, who is 102-years old
this year, live together at 652 W. Washington St. Den, a Bradford
native, is a daughter of the late George Arthur and Josephine Davis
West, and has lived in Florida for about the last 30 years, she
said.

The death of Den’s second husband some years ago, leaving her
with no family in Florida, and a subsequent hip injury eventually
made Giles feel it was time for her mother to come home to
Bradford, she said, so she could care for her. Den came back to
Bradford to live with Giles in April.

Upon her return to Bradford, Den said, she was the most amazed
to see the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford campus.

“I’d never have recognized it,” Den said of Bradford in general.
“How it’s changed.”

Den lived in the Sixth Ward, at 294 E. Main St., when she was a
child. The house she grew up in is still there, Den’s other
daughter, Phyllis Erwin of Bradford, said, adding Den recognized it
as soon as she saw it. She was a member of the Asbury United
Methodist Church growing up in Bradford, she added.

Den grew up with four brothers, she said, and is now the last
living sibling in her family.

At more than 100-years old now, Den keeps herself busy with
Bingo, playing cards and working word puzzles, her daughters
said.

“I just enjoy life now,” Den said, adding her daughter is now
cooking for her instead of the other way around. “And she’s a good
cook, too,” Den said of Giles.

“I had to learn to cook all over again,” Giles laughed, saying
she, too, was widowed about nine years ago. For those nine years,
she mostly ate out, she said, but now that it’s mother and daughter
in the house, she cooks for her mother.

While the trio had a hard time remembering past Mother’s Days,
Erwin pointed out that one that was easy for them all to remember
because it was so unfortunate was the disappearance of little
Marjorie West. Marjorie, Den’s niece, disappeared more than 60
years ago on Mother’s Day, they said.

And in the last 30 years while Den was in Florida, the family –
also made up of Den’s son, Jack Covert of Bradford – usually
traveled south only for their mother’s birthday in November or at
Christmas time.

This is the first chance they’ve had to celebrate Mother’s Day
together in a long, long time, Giles said.

As such, this year, the family will all be together on Sunday at
Erwin’s home to mark the one day a year set aside to remember our
mothers, they said.

Giles is a mother of one daughter in Texas, and Erwin has two
sons living in Bradford.