title: An Iowa Blessing
author: Meredith, Paul R.
description: June Disney is a young woman running away from a terrible tragedy in her life. She blindly drives into Peoria, Illinois, on her way to somewhere, with no firm destination in mind. She likes the looks of the Illinois River town and decides to stay and look it over for a couple of days. She checks into an old, elegant, very historic hotel and scans the papers for possible employment.
  	Ultimately, she decides to walk in and apply for a job at a local advertising company. Gaining an interview, she impresses the interviewer with her education and neat appearance. A short time later he decides to hire her into a starting clerical position. It doesn’t take June long to be noticed by the owner of the company. He is immediately impressed with her college background in marketing and sees to it she is given a more important role in the business.
  	June labors hard as she works her way up the ladder until the day she finds herself sitting in an office next to the owner of the business. Her best friend in the workplace, Sara Longstreet, introduces June to a handsome stranger, a mysterious man she does not immediately like. The strange meeting gradually develops into a weird sort of friendship between June and Allan.
  	Allan’s work is a mystery he will not divulge to anyone. He travels to many places for his work, a subject he will never discuss. He won’t tell his last name for fear it could cause harm to those closest to him. While on a mission to an undisclosed location, Allan isn’t heard from for more than three months. June decides to attempt to locate Allan, and quite by happenstance, discovers his father’s name and location. She contacts the father and learns that the State Department notified the family that Allan was killed under mysterious circumstances in Iran.
  	Through the strange set of coincidences surrounding Allan’s death, June meets Allan’s parents, as well as his twin brother, when they come to town to resolve what to do with Allan’s few belongings. June has invited them to dinner at her place to discuss the topic of Allan and his mysterious work. The parents offer a polite return invitation for her to visit them in Iowa. Secretly, June knows she will never visit, even though she politely accepts the idea.
  	Allan’s brother calls June as he passes through town on business a few weeks later. She agrees to meet Josh Bennett for dinner, assuming it is to discuss more of his brother’s life. From that second encounter with Josh, June’s life takes a turn one could never expect, culminating in a beautiful romance that must be carried on long distance due to current job conflicts.
  	When Josh discovers there is no way to ever marry June because of the distance and the demanding positions they each have in business, he calls the romance off. A few months later, in the dead of an Iowa winter, he is severely injured in a vehicle collision on an icy road in the Des Moines area. As Josh lays near death in the hospital, June receives a call from his father. The call shocks her and requires her to leave immediately to be at Josh’s side while he fights for his life. Josh has unknowingly been calling her name while in a semi-comatose state.
  	Josh’s life hangs by a thread while June is at his bedside praying for his recovery. When Josh finally comes out of the coma, June makes a decision that changes everything.
  	This story takes the reader through a whirlwind of business relationships, mysterious death, intrigue, friendship, romance, and finally to an ending that couldn’t be expected. This is a compelling story of a woman who lives one day at a time, until her life takes a dramatic turn. June ends up in a place she could never have expected in her wildest dreams. The reader won’t be able to lay the story down until the last line is read.