82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 22, 1987
Dairy Farm Mom
Opens Home and
Heart To Kids
BY LOU ANN GOOD
“Our home is always open.”
Fran Bushong said as her eyes
swept across her spacious reno
vated kitchen where baskets, dried
flowers and collectibles hang from
the rafters.
The Bushong’s Lebanon Coun
ty farmhouse is large enough to
host the 40-60 4-H kids Fran
directs; yet, homey enough with
Fran’s homespun touches to make
their own three children and vari
ous foster teens feel at home.
This busy housewife was
always determined to be in farm
ing. In 1964, she was the first
female FFA’er in the nation. And
Fran loves milking cows. She has the distinction of
being both the first female FFA’er and the first female
recipient of the FFA Keystone Award.
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The Bushong familyfnllks 85 cows three times each day. “Everyone does
their part or we couldn’t do it,” Fran,said. Pictured from left, Allen, Melanie,
Fran, Dale, Michele, and Matt.
in 1968, she was the first girl to
receive the Keystone Award.
Today Fran and her husband
Dale own an 85-acre dairy farm in
Lebanon. With their children
Matt, 16; twelve year-old twins
Melanie and Michele and one per
manent foster son Allan, 18; they
milk 85 cows three times a day.
Family is top priority for the
Bushongs who explained, “we
planned our milking schedule for 5
a.m., 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. so we can
attend all the kid’s games at school
and all their 4-H activities.” Matt
plays football and the twins play
field hockey.
The Bushongs work in shifts
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This busy mom grabs a pan from the ladder she hung herself. Fran
Bushong, Lebanon, tore out walls & ceilings of their formerly 20-room farm
house to make the rooms more spacious.
together to see that all the chores
are done smoothly and on time. “If
you don’t work together as a fami
ly, you’ll never make it on the
farm,” Fran pointed out. The twins
wash the cows and change the
milkers while their parents and two
older brothers milk.
The Bushong’s farm is a place
where kids congregate and feel at
home. In fact, for many it is the
first home they have actually
known. Over the past years, the
Bushongs have been parents to 15
fosler-placed teens.
Most of them are troubled teens
who test their limits. Many of the
Bushong’s friends question, “How
can you love these kids
unconditionally?
Fran explained, “All you can do
is feed and love them.” Fran said,
“If you try to make them do things
a certain way, it won’t work.”
She recalled one twclve-ycar
old girl, who sobbed after she was
placed in their home after her
mother had coached her to become
a prostitute, “I just want to be a
normal twelve year-old. I’m tired
of pretending I’m 20.”
Fran’s advice to her: “Go out in
the field and pick a calf and a cat to
take care of. You can have them as
long as you’re here.”
Fran has strong beliefs about
today’s kids. She said, “They need
responsibility. Too many have
been entertained all their life by
TV and spectator games.”
Of course, on a farm there is
always tons of work to do. And
Fran admits, “If people aren ’ t care
ful, the farm will run them instead
of them running the farm.”
The Bushongs are careful not to
let that happen. Although they
have a daily schedule, some days
they drop it all and say, “Today,
we’re taking off to go swimming.”
This family has always been
quick to help others in need. Sever
al years ago, Allan, who is their
only permanent foster child, was
kicked out of his home with no
place to go. He begged the
Bushongs, “Please, let me come
and live with you. Teach me how
to farm.”
The Bushongs love Allan as
their own and Fran points out,
“When we got him, we thought we
were doing him a favor. We didn’t
expect anything in return. But as it
turns out, he helps us out in many
ways.”
This summer the Bushongs
were able to visit relatives in Mis
souri while Allan stayed behind
and ran the farm. Some people
asked the Bushongs, “How can
you vacation and let an 18-year
old kid run the farm”? But Fran
said, “If we can’t trust him to do it
right, than we didn’t train him to
do a good job.”
Fran doesn’t pretend to have the
perfect family. “We have disagree
ments. We have bills. We have
challenges—milk prices spiral
downward, unpredictable weather
could cause us to lose everything
in one season.”
When the Bushongs face a prob
lem, Fran said, “we stop and hold
hands and pray and something
happens inside. Our kids see how
God provides, but we want our
kids to see that money is not the
most important part of life. We can
have all those things and still not
be happy. Only the Lord can pro
vide that.”
It seems unbelievable that this
busy woman who is Constantly
helping others was at one time
depressed and suicidal.
Fran grew up the oldest of eight
children on a Pennsylvania farm.
Her childhood memories are punc
tuated with splintering glass and
the screaming rages as her alcohol-
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ic father chased her mother with
knives and anything else he could
grab.
Fran thought she left her unhap
py childhood behind when she
married a FFA’er whom she met at
a state convention.
She was determined to have the
exact opposite of her childhood
homelife. But VA years after her
marriage, tragedy struck. Fran’s
husband was killed in a traffic
accident and left her with a four
month old son.
Angry and bitter that a man as
wonderful as her husband was
killed in a senseless accident while
criminals led an apparent trouble
free life, Fran withdrew into a deep
depression for two years. Suicide,
she decided, was the only escape
available to her.
“I went into the bathroom,” Fr a
recalled, “I poured a bottle of pills
in my hand, but when I tried to lift
them to my mouth, I couldn’t.”
For three hours Fran struggled
to swallow the pills. Tired of fight
ing, Fran sensed that she had a
choice —“to sink or swim.” Fran
recalled, “I prayed, “God, I want to
swim, but I don’t know how.”
Fran believes in that moment
her life was changed. She sensed
that she needed to stop trying to
understand why her husband was
killed and trust God.”
The young widow began to take
an interest in life again. Fran did
not believe she would ever marry
again, but soon she met Dale. “Our
story is like a love story,” she
admits. “He’s so patient, loving
and understanding.” In 1974 they
were married and in 1975, they had
twin girls
“You see,” Fran said, “I was at
the bottom. I was bitter and angry.
That is why I can love the foster
kids we take in. 1 know what it is
like to have nothing, be nothing, to
vvant to die and then to experience
God’s unconditional love. That’s
why we want to take these kids in.
To show them there is another way
to live.”
Fanning and home responsibili
ties have not stopped Fran from
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