BY JAIME GATTON

For as long as she can remember — from time spent as a child in her family’s funeral home to owning an alternative and holistic health shop as an adult — June Cavin Stahnke has felt connected to the spirit world.

Her paternal grandfather, John Pressley Cavin, is the Cavin part of the current Cavin-Cook Funeral Home & Crematory. He bought the very first ambulance for Mooresville, and his three sons, including June’s dad, Bob, would grow up and start a small chain of four funeral homes in Mooresville, Troutman, Huntersville and Charlotte.

Now, June owns a small spirit-centered business in her hometown. Cosmic Connection Wellness, Art and Interests, located at 121 Statesville Avenue near Downtown Mooresville, specializes in stones and crystals, a wide variety of incense, essential oils, jewelry — some of which June makes herself — and herbs and teas.

June’s introduction to the spirit world began when she was just a child. Her grandfather built Cavin Funeral Home in 1925. “He died when my dad was 12,” she said.

Afterward, her grandmother, Clara Starrette Cavin, ran the funeral home. Then, when June’s dad and his two brothers — June’s Uncle Smoke and Uncle Bill — were old enough, they joined their mother in the family business.

“I grew up in it,” June said. “I went to work with my dad, and my grandmother taught me not to be afraid of the dead.”

She paused with a grin. “But she told me to watch out for the ones that are living.”

June remembers watching her grandmother fix the hair of dead bodies in the funeral home. “She would put a bracelet on the women with a little handkerchief tucked in it,” June recalled. “I’m not sure why she did that. I guess it was her signature — to show that they had been touched by her.”

June’s Mooresville roots run deep. Her maternal grandmother owned the State Theatre on Main Street and the Carolina Drive-in, which was located at the intersection of N.C. 150 and N.C. 152. “I could go to all the movies for free and take friends,” June recalled.

She was young and helped collect tickets at the theatre. She said she stayed confused about where the people in their cars went after they parked to watch the drive-in movie. It would be years later when she realized that those people were still in their cars … they were just up to a little hanky-panky. “I was probably more amazed by that than anything I saw at the funeral home!” June said.

“My daddy told me I was too sensitive to be in the funeral home business,” she recalled. “But so was he. He and his brothers were licensed funeral directors, but he wasn’t an embalmer. Uncle Bill and Smoke were licensed embalmers.” June’s now-late brother would later become one, too, and he ran the Cavin Funeral Home in Charlotte.

To this day, June has a couple of vivid recollections of times when she realized early on that she may have a gift. She remembers, as a child, witnessing a mother viewing the body of her dead baby at the funeral home. It’s something that has stuck with her for the duration of her life. “It was the strongest emotion I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I was just five.”

Later, she would go on occasional “death calls” with her dad. “One of the strangest was to pick up the body of a young college student that had been killed on the campus at UNC-Chapel Hill,” June said. “I felt the presence of her spirit with us on the way back to Mooresville that night.”

She said both memories made her feel in tune with the spirit world. “But, of course, I didn’t think this was unusual,” she said. “To me, it was normal, ordinary life.”

As an adult, June found herself in the floral business, working hand-in-hand with funeral homes but also playing a role in great celebrations of love, happiness and joy on special occasions. When she would make casket sprays at her flower shop, sometimes she felt like the presence of the deceased was with her. “They kept asking for impractical things to be added to their spray of flowers,” June said. “It made me wonder if people would think I was crazy if I actually added it.”

But the opposite happened. Many family members, in fact, were shocked and asked how she knew that the special object she added was significant to their loved one.

While June still dabbles in the floral business, her heart is her little Cosmic Connections shop, which opened on Main Street in 2012 but moved into a little old house on Statesville Avenue in 2017.

Unlike many other small businesses, Cosmic Connections enjoyed some of its most successful days during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I think people needed to have faith in something,” June said. “They wanted a place to go, and we were open.”

Then she laughed. “I think they were probably wanting to escape their kids, too, and I didn’t let kids come into the shop at that time,” she explained.

Folks who visit the shop are welcomed in with June’s kindness — and a wipe to clean their hands. A lot of people want to touch stones and crystals when they’re in the shop, so this practice keeps things as clean and sanitary as possible, June said.

She recently cleaned out what was her craft room in the quaint little shop to turn it into a “spiritual salon” for customers to meditate, use singing bowls and hold small classes and intimate conversations.

The house also has a room for readings. June’s husband, Chris, practices tarot. Two others — Barb Griggs and Angel Nicholson — are psychic mediums, and Barb also practices sound healing and chakra balancing, June said.

“People come to us for advice and crystals and herbs to get well,” she said. “Our goal is to bring hope, faith and peace, community and communication to people. We want people to feel accepted and appreciated — especially those who feel they’re not like everybody else.

“Cosmic Connection is our name,” June said. “We have always been about bringing like-minded people together. You never know who you’ll meet when you come in here, but chances are you’ll meet the nicest people.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in the February edition of “IFN Monthly.”