Fumiko Bruner

Fumiko Bruner was born 27 June 1950 in Fukuoka, Japan, the only surviving child of Kyushun and Sachiko Yamamoto, a rice-farming family that endured the hardships of the postwar years. A sickly child whose mother kept watch over her through the night, Fumiko nonetheless worked hard in the rice fields and enjoyed basketball in junior high. While training to become a chauffeur, she encountered the Unification Church and joined on 7 July 1976.

On 27 June 1982 — her thirty-second birthday — she travelled to the United States and was matched to David Bruner that same day. Three days later, on 1 July 1982, they were blessed in marriage at Madison Square Garden in New York. The couple served in missions in Tennessee, New Jersey, and New York before relocating in 1993 to David's home state of Colorado.

In Colorado, Fumiko became known throughout the Denver community as a generous and gifted cook, preparing meals for members and attending to True Parents during their visits. Her signature dish was curry chicken, and she was an enthusiastic thrift-store shopper, eventually accumulating multiple rice cookers. After fifteen years of trying to conceive, she and David received their 'offering child,' Reul Jin, through an adoption arranged in Colorado Springs. The family travelled often to Japan to share their blessings and care for Fumiko's aging parents.

Pastors and community members remembered her unwavering optimism, gratitude, and joyful spirit even through health challenges and the long wait for a child. Her husband and her best friend Hisako noted that the two women were so alike in appearance that strangers often mistook them for sisters. The couple had recently completed their Cheonbo registration.

Fumiko passed away peacefully at home on 9 February 2021 after a fall in the basement while doing laundry. She is survived by her husband David and her son Reul Jin, and is remembered above all for her radiant smile.

'She is like a ray of light,' her son said. 'She kind of forces you to be happy; you do not really have a choice around her.'