September 13, 2022

‘NOT MANY CAN SAY QUEEN THREW THEM BIRTHDAY PARTY’

DORSET — June Johnson doesn’t mind hard work.

She grew up working for a living and continues to do so.

The 86-year-old short-order cook at Zachary’s can’t just can’t find staff to help.

So she’s been double-shifting with 73-year-old waiter Doris Nash dishing up the plates of family fare in the popular waterfront restaurant at the narrows in town.

Johnson and her husband Bill run a handful of businesses in a small building on the site of the original home where Zachariah Cole lived in 1982 at the northwest end of Lake of Bays. They’ve been there 44 years.

Next to the bridge, its large covered patio overlooks the home of the resurrected Bigwin steamship — a hybrid now sailing the lake under diesel and battery power.

But between cooking and cleaning up, the British expat is keeping an eye on her homeland while lamenting the loss of her childhood “friend.”

As we’ve seen this week a lot of people did see the Queen, meet her or have a story to tell about their Royal engagement.

But ….

“Not many can say the Queen threw them a birthday party,” she said Sunday as she closed up shop at 3 p.m. after feeding the last passengers of the day’s final boat trip.

Johnson grew up in an orphanage and while still a princess Elizabeth threw a birthday party for her and few friends.

Nothing fancy. A few sandwiches, some juice and — of course — a sweet cake.

Maybe that’s what inspired Johnson’s culinary inclination.

“She even visited me in hospital,” Johnson said of a brief stay.

So the Queen’s death has touched her.

And she still fondly recalls growing up and having a Royal she still considers a lifelong “friend.”

One she still misses — most poignantly this week.