02-16-2025, 09:20 PM
Here is the obit:
Obituary for Audry Louise Lynch
Daughter of Helen and Joe; wife to Greg; mother of Stephanie, Roberta, and Greg; grandmother to Jenelle and Zachary; great-grandmother to Jasmyne, Jordan, and Anya; Audry Louise Lynch passed away on January 15, 2025 after a life fully lived.
Audry was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating from Harvard University’s sister college, Radcliffe, but spent the majority of her life in Saratoga, California. She lived her life by one firm motto: She wanted to go everywhere and she wanted to do everything. There were very few places on the globe that did not give her a passport stamp. Audry filled her house with unique objects from around the world.
Her second great love, after her husband Greg, had to be John Steinbeck. Her move to California in 1970 put her in close proximity to the locations made famous in the works of her literary hero. Countless were the trips the family would take from Saratoga down to Steinbeck country. If she wasn’t talking about Steinbeck, she was writing about Steinbeck or giving lectures about Steinbeck or giving tours through Steinbeck country. She amassed probably the largest personal collection of Steinbeck books and memorabilia on the West Coast.
Passed down from her father was a devotion to education. Audry spent over forty years as a guidance counselor in San Jose, ending her career at Bernal Middle School. In her spare time, she taught writing courses at the local community colleges. Students from those classes still contact her around the holidays to talk about the impact she had on their lives.
She didn’t just teach writing but also was a writer herself. She got her start as a writer for the Woburn Times in Massachusetts and was constantly producing articles on a range of subjects. Her fist book was about a parish priest and his struggles in one of the poorest sections of Limerick, Ireland. Audry, of course, wrote about Steinbeck in numerous formats but the apex was probably her detailing Steinbeck’s exploits while he himself was writing his book the Sea of Cortez.
Audry’s end came peacefully. She spent the Christmas holidays visiting with her far flung family as they traveled home for what would turn out to be one last Christmas get together. Once the excitement of the visits was over, it seemed that Audry decided her journey here was done and left us to be back with the first love of her life, her high school sweetheart, Greg.
Here is the eulogy:
And so we are done.
Like the dozens of half filled notebooks at my mother’s house, no more words will be written in this story.
There is a certain finality about today that has been kind of overlooked in all our preparations for this moment. But now that this day is here, I can feel this chapter of my life coming to a close with a definite sense of closure.
The life my mother built here with my father in Saratoga is complete. But the network of friends and relatives that surrounded her no longer has it’s center. I’m sure new pathways will be formed but it won’t be the same without Audry Lynch there to tie them all together.
From the faces I see before me, it is readily apparent she impacted a lot of lives. But that’s what she did all her life. She impacted lives. Whether it was the thousands of middle school kids who sought her guidance at Bernal or came to one of her lectures about her hero, John Steinbeck. Maybe you were one of the people she talked to on the phone for hours on end because she needed to her every last detail about what was going on in your life. She was genuinely interested in people
But those days are done.
No more giant parties in the ballroom of the house on Meadow Oak Rd. No more trips to exotic locations. No more thank you cards with personal notes. No more hanging out with outlaw bikers in their East Palo Alto clubhouse. No more searches for the perfect piece of jewelry to go with the fancy hat she just bought.
My mother’s passing marks a tremendous transition point for the family She is last member of our family from her generation. Now that Audry Lynch is gone a tremendous nexus for thousands of differing relationships is gone.
When I heard my mother had passed, I came down from my home in Raymond to be with my sister Roberta. My sister was very distraught, naturally, that my mother had passed. Not so much for herself and her own feelings of loss. But distraught for my mother’s sake that my mother’s life had ended at all. Roberta told me when I first arrived, “She wasn’t done, yet”
Up to the end, my mother looked to the future. Sure she hadn’t risen from her bed in months and yet, she was making plans to attend her college reunion this summer at Harvard. Later in the fall, she wanted to attend her grand-niece’s wedding just outside Boston. By her bedside was her notebook where she wrote ideas for her next book. She hoped to share what she had learned about writing. In my mind, however improbable those goals were for my mother, she would still find a way to accomplish them.
And yet, those days are done.
The circle of her life is complete.
In preparation for today, I was going through one of the dozens of photo albums my mother put together. I came across a picture of me standing at this very altar with a bible almost too big for me to hold. I think the year was 1970 and at the behest of my mother, I did the reading for my first Holy Communion. There might have been some gentle priest arm twisting, too, to get me to do the reading. But that was Audry Lynch always pushing her children to reach their full potential, to get out of their comfort zones and try new things.
She lived her life in that manner, too, pushing herself to always try new things. Except for skiing. She did try it. But she hated it. She took first prize at a science fair where my father came in second, which angered him to no end. Although he did end up marrying the woman who defeated him in his chosen field.
On behalf of my sisters, Roberta and Stephanie, I would like to thank you all for coming. My mother would be sorely disappointed to not be here with you. I would like to think she is here in spirit. I would also like to thank Father Hao and Father Paul for conducting today’s service in my mother’s memory.
My mother dreamed of living out her life at her home in Saratoga and I don’t think without the help of two people that would have been possible. First off, there is Danuta Sordyl who was my mother’s in home care giver. She spent the last five years doing everything humanly possible to keep my mother going. The other, to who I owe a great deal of thanks is my sister Roberta. She was the one who made everything work. She ordered the food. She paid the bills. She managed all the health care workers coming and going. Towards the end, I think she was on a first name basis with every attendant at the Kaiser Hospital emergency room. It was a struggle at times. But Roberta kept at it, no matter how hard the days. Thank you, Roberta for all that you did.
So, here we are fifty odd years later and I am back at the podium in her Church of Ascension at the behest of my mother. If I was a better writer I would work in some John Steinbeck quote, maybe something from Grapes of Wrath. I could do the bit at the end where Tom Joad is telling his mother “Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be around in the dark. I’l be everywhere-wherever you look. When they’s fightin’ so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the the way guys yell when they’re mad an’—I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know super’s ready” Although, I don’t think my mother is going to be there where the cops are beating up people. But if you are talking on the phone with a friend for forever, she’ll be listening in. Or if you decide to pursue higher education or maybe just take a class to try something different, my mom will be somewhere smiling.
Perhaps you will set pen to paper in some beaten up old notebook to finally start that story you’ve been thinking of writing for years, then you’ll have made my mother’s day. You can start the next chapter.
Unfortunately for us, my mother’s chapters are done
After the wedding someone came up to me and said I did a great job giving the eulogy my Antarctic sister wrote.....
Obituary for Audry Louise Lynch
Daughter of Helen and Joe; wife to Greg; mother of Stephanie, Roberta, and Greg; grandmother to Jenelle and Zachary; great-grandmother to Jasmyne, Jordan, and Anya; Audry Louise Lynch passed away on January 15, 2025 after a life fully lived.
Audry was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating from Harvard University’s sister college, Radcliffe, but spent the majority of her life in Saratoga, California. She lived her life by one firm motto: She wanted to go everywhere and she wanted to do everything. There were very few places on the globe that did not give her a passport stamp. Audry filled her house with unique objects from around the world.
Her second great love, after her husband Greg, had to be John Steinbeck. Her move to California in 1970 put her in close proximity to the locations made famous in the works of her literary hero. Countless were the trips the family would take from Saratoga down to Steinbeck country. If she wasn’t talking about Steinbeck, she was writing about Steinbeck or giving lectures about Steinbeck or giving tours through Steinbeck country. She amassed probably the largest personal collection of Steinbeck books and memorabilia on the West Coast.
Passed down from her father was a devotion to education. Audry spent over forty years as a guidance counselor in San Jose, ending her career at Bernal Middle School. In her spare time, she taught writing courses at the local community colleges. Students from those classes still contact her around the holidays to talk about the impact she had on their lives.
She didn’t just teach writing but also was a writer herself. She got her start as a writer for the Woburn Times in Massachusetts and was constantly producing articles on a range of subjects. Her fist book was about a parish priest and his struggles in one of the poorest sections of Limerick, Ireland. Audry, of course, wrote about Steinbeck in numerous formats but the apex was probably her detailing Steinbeck’s exploits while he himself was writing his book the Sea of Cortez.
Audry’s end came peacefully. She spent the Christmas holidays visiting with her far flung family as they traveled home for what would turn out to be one last Christmas get together. Once the excitement of the visits was over, it seemed that Audry decided her journey here was done and left us to be back with the first love of her life, her high school sweetheart, Greg.
Here is the eulogy:
And so we are done.
Like the dozens of half filled notebooks at my mother’s house, no more words will be written in this story.
There is a certain finality about today that has been kind of overlooked in all our preparations for this moment. But now that this day is here, I can feel this chapter of my life coming to a close with a definite sense of closure.
The life my mother built here with my father in Saratoga is complete. But the network of friends and relatives that surrounded her no longer has it’s center. I’m sure new pathways will be formed but it won’t be the same without Audry Lynch there to tie them all together.
From the faces I see before me, it is readily apparent she impacted a lot of lives. But that’s what she did all her life. She impacted lives. Whether it was the thousands of middle school kids who sought her guidance at Bernal or came to one of her lectures about her hero, John Steinbeck. Maybe you were one of the people she talked to on the phone for hours on end because she needed to her every last detail about what was going on in your life. She was genuinely interested in people
But those days are done.
No more giant parties in the ballroom of the house on Meadow Oak Rd. No more trips to exotic locations. No more thank you cards with personal notes. No more hanging out with outlaw bikers in their East Palo Alto clubhouse. No more searches for the perfect piece of jewelry to go with the fancy hat she just bought.
My mother’s passing marks a tremendous transition point for the family She is last member of our family from her generation. Now that Audry Lynch is gone a tremendous nexus for thousands of differing relationships is gone.
When I heard my mother had passed, I came down from my home in Raymond to be with my sister Roberta. My sister was very distraught, naturally, that my mother had passed. Not so much for herself and her own feelings of loss. But distraught for my mother’s sake that my mother’s life had ended at all. Roberta told me when I first arrived, “She wasn’t done, yet”
Up to the end, my mother looked to the future. Sure she hadn’t risen from her bed in months and yet, she was making plans to attend her college reunion this summer at Harvard. Later in the fall, she wanted to attend her grand-niece’s wedding just outside Boston. By her bedside was her notebook where she wrote ideas for her next book. She hoped to share what she had learned about writing. In my mind, however improbable those goals were for my mother, she would still find a way to accomplish them.
And yet, those days are done.
The circle of her life is complete.
In preparation for today, I was going through one of the dozens of photo albums my mother put together. I came across a picture of me standing at this very altar with a bible almost too big for me to hold. I think the year was 1970 and at the behest of my mother, I did the reading for my first Holy Communion. There might have been some gentle priest arm twisting, too, to get me to do the reading. But that was Audry Lynch always pushing her children to reach their full potential, to get out of their comfort zones and try new things.
She lived her life in that manner, too, pushing herself to always try new things. Except for skiing. She did try it. But she hated it. She took first prize at a science fair where my father came in second, which angered him to no end. Although he did end up marrying the woman who defeated him in his chosen field.
On behalf of my sisters, Roberta and Stephanie, I would like to thank you all for coming. My mother would be sorely disappointed to not be here with you. I would like to think she is here in spirit. I would also like to thank Father Hao and Father Paul for conducting today’s service in my mother’s memory.
My mother dreamed of living out her life at her home in Saratoga and I don’t think without the help of two people that would have been possible. First off, there is Danuta Sordyl who was my mother’s in home care giver. She spent the last five years doing everything humanly possible to keep my mother going. The other, to who I owe a great deal of thanks is my sister Roberta. She was the one who made everything work. She ordered the food. She paid the bills. She managed all the health care workers coming and going. Towards the end, I think she was on a first name basis with every attendant at the Kaiser Hospital emergency room. It was a struggle at times. But Roberta kept at it, no matter how hard the days. Thank you, Roberta for all that you did.
So, here we are fifty odd years later and I am back at the podium in her Church of Ascension at the behest of my mother. If I was a better writer I would work in some John Steinbeck quote, maybe something from Grapes of Wrath. I could do the bit at the end where Tom Joad is telling his mother “Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be around in the dark. I’l be everywhere-wherever you look. When they’s fightin’ so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the the way guys yell when they’re mad an’—I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know super’s ready” Although, I don’t think my mother is going to be there where the cops are beating up people. But if you are talking on the phone with a friend for forever, she’ll be listening in. Or if you decide to pursue higher education or maybe just take a class to try something different, my mom will be somewhere smiling.
Perhaps you will set pen to paper in some beaten up old notebook to finally start that story you’ve been thinking of writing for years, then you’ll have made my mother’s day. You can start the next chapter.
Unfortunately for us, my mother’s chapters are done
After the wedding someone came up to me and said I did a great job giving the eulogy my Antarctic sister wrote.....
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
![[Image: momGrave.jpeg]](http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/Images_Global/greg/momGrave.jpeg)