By Dennis Nartker [email protected] "God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers." — Rudyard Kipling CROMWELL — She loved her family unconditionally. When her son Dan was drafted during the Vietnam War, she faithfully wrote him a letter every day and made the trip to Cromwell to mail it. She supported her grandchildren's school and 4-H activities. She had a strong Christian faith. "Mom made sure that we were in church each Sunday. You were never asked if you wanted to go to church that Sunday. It was understood that we were going to be there," said her son Stephen. Marjorie Roberta Bushong was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and a devoted, active lifetime member of the Indian Village E.U.B. Church-Indian Village United Methodist Church. Mrs. Bushong, 90, passed away on Dec. 5, 2015. She was born on Jan. 18, 1925, to Leroy M. and Mable I. (Bause) Hontz on the family farm near Cromwell. On April 9, 1944, she married Emerson Bushong at the family farm. Upon his return from World War II, they resided on the family farm their entire 61 years of marriage. He preceded her in death. Stephen recalled how his mother hauled him and his brother and two sisters to hundreds of practices, games and other school activities. "Hauling four kids to activities caused my dad to conclude that the car took off every 30 minutes up the driveway whether anyone was in it or not," he said. Mrs. Bushong always offered her grandchildren ice cream in her strawberry bowls whenever they visited the farm. It did no good to say "no," as she wouldn't accept "no" for an answer. She would keep asking them until she got an affirmative. Her daughter Sasha Hively recalled how the war interrupted her parents' marriage plans. In 1944, Mrs. Bushong was a freshman at Manchester College, and her future husband was working on his family's farm near Syracuse. They planned to get married in June that year, but he received his draft papers and had to report the first part of May. They hastily changed their wedding to Easter Sunday, and he left shortly after for the U.S. Navy while she continued her studies at Manchester College. Mr. Bushong was stationed in Hutchinson, Kansas, for training, and Sasha recalled how much her mother wanted to see him, but the transportation system was limited and gas rationing made the trip difficult. "She got a ticket on a cattle train, and road with the cattle to see Dad." Mrs. Bushong loved to tell jokes to anybody who would listen. It didn't matter the time crunch the listener was in, she was going to deliver the joke. At the Indian Village E.U.B. Church, she was active in the music ministry, and played the piano and organ for church services for 70 years. Family members were surprised at how Mrs. Bushong mastered the use of an iPad and Facebook, and her ability to send emails in the middle of the night to everyone. Genealogy was a passion of hers. She researched the family history extensively. "Mom could rarely say the name of a person without going into all the details of who they married, who their siblings married, who their parents and grandparents were, kids' names, birth dates, brothers-in-law, cousins. The same was true about her neighbors' families," Stephen said. Mrs. Bushong was a former member of the Washington Township Homemakers Club and served on various county committees. In addition to her sons, Dan and Stephen, and daughter Sasha, she is survived by: a daughter, Sharon Gerig; eight grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. She was interred in Sparta Cemetery in Kimmell.