Phyllis Eileen Lynch

"Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark..."
– Tennyson, "Crossing the Bar"

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
– Tennyson, "Ulysses"

Phyllis Eileen Brodie Lynch, née Madill
Sept. 16, 1934 – Oct. 18, 2024

Nurse, horsewoman, painter, beloved mother, wife, and friend, independent spirit forever. The youngest of five daughters born to Loren Madill and Elizabeth Campbell of Souris, MB, she soon had to pull her weight on the family farm as her parents toiled their way from grinding Dustbowl poverty to a prosperous early retirement. A keen student with a photographic memory and phenomenal work ethic, she rose to the top of her class at Winnipeg's renowned St. Boniface Hospital School of Nursing. She served with the VON in hard-scrabble North Winnipeg and worked in clinics in Saskatoon and Calgary, where she and her husband David Brodie ran a much-loved coffee house called "The Vicious Circle": within its basement walls you might listen to jazz great Moe Koffman or take in plays by Albee or Ionesco. After a few years they returned to Winnipeg and Phyllis went back to delivering babies at St. Boniface Hospital, so impressing the Grey Nuns that they offered to pay her way through university if she would return and teach. Soon after their child Leanna came along, however, Phyllis and David moved to Toronto so that he could pursue his now thriving voiceover career. In 1972 they opened Shingebiss Equestrian School in Bewdley, Ontario, where Phyllis spent more than a decade sharing her profound love and knowledge of horses with hundreds of students of all ages. After David died of ALS, a heartbroken Phyllis requalified as a nurse in Peterborough ON, where she eventually met and married her second husband, Jack Lynch. Together they raised their three teenage children into adulthood, and then – as snowbirds in North Carolina – made dear new friends. Soon after Jack passed away of cancer in 2010, Phyllis weathered two massive health crises of her own, which left her with significant physical disabilities but could not overpower her fighting spirit. She moved to Richmond BC and then Cobourg ON to be closer to her adult children, pursuing reading, painting, and gardening with a vengeance. In her final days with bowel cancer (which she had beaten twice before), she was cared for by the staff at Ed's House hospice with diligence and compassion. Thanks to Dr. Mulé and his team, she was able to choose her time to leave us... holding her daughter's hand, with a smile on her lips and a rose between her teeth.

Phyllis was warm, funny, and fiercely loving, combining artistic flair and sensitivity with indomitable prairie grit. While genuinely curious and open-minded about people, she was also intensely private and even shy. Often happiest when spending time with animals and in the natural world, she was nevertheless devoted to her husbands, loved her many friends, and was immensely proud of her kids.

She was predeceased by her husbands R. David Brodie (1929-1978) and John D. Lynch (1929-2010), and is survived by her daughter Leanna Brodie (Jovanni Sy), stepdaughter Jennifer Powles (Colin Powles), and stepson Douglas J. Lynch (Rachel Lane), as well as by grandchildren Aaron, Ben, Greg, Regan, and Sarah.
You are welcome to donate to Ed's House Northumberland Hospice Care Centre or your local Humane Society in Phyllis's honour.