Lynn Marie Childs

Lynn Childs, at the age of 71, made her final push to show her family, nay the world, just how stubborn she truly was by enduring a three-year battle with breast cancer. For anyone wishing to pay their respects, details to her funeral service can be found here – https://flannerbuchanan.com/obit/lynn-marie-childs/

After surviving cervical cancer with seemingly relative ease in the early to mid-2000s, Lynn continued her life without missing a step. As though she had just shaken off an unseasonable sunburn, she always concerned herself more with the health and well-being of everyone around her over her own. However, several years ago, she became burdened yet again with what was in reality a much more severe case of breast cancer which she accepted with the dignity and grace only she could muster; but treated it as yet another mild inconvenience. Regardless of how tired she was from treatment, she refused to become an invalid for as long as she possibly could and insisted on doing for herself as she has always done. She firmly operated under the assumption that if she didn’t do it, it either wouldn’t be done or it wouldn’t be done correctly. Yet as headstrong as she was, she lived to do for other people.

Lynn’s lifelong ambition was to simply be a mother of a large family. She was filled with love and wanted nothing more than for that love to continue on through her children. Despite her large aspirations, she discontinued having biological children after the births of three sons, Jay, Jeff and Michael concluding with daughter Leanne. But that in no way stopped her from being mother to the rest of the world, unofficially adopting Elmer Rogers, school friend of the elder sons, into the family. But countless others would come and go still recognizing Lynn as honorary second mother to all. She also loved to care for animals and insisted on taking on such responsibilities, despite the protestations of her husband, to whom she remained married for 52 years, who would always eventually come around to the idea once he learned he really had no choice in the matter. She took on pet mom roles for everything from dogs and cats to birds, even ferrets.

When she wasn’t dealing with the unrelenting drama that comes with raising four cantankerous yet well-intended children and their ever-evolving entourage, Lynn was a Christian and took an active role in her church early on. She loved singing and playing guitar for several choirs. Her most time-consuming hobby was knitting and sewing various articles for any number of her seven grandchildren – in order of appearance: Kyehrais, Lexi, Jacob, Riley, Natalie, Sarah, and Arya – who were probably her greatest joy in life. She would sit, knit and sew various “woobies” for countless hours, watching her programs. Anything from tiny figures to security blankets. She loved to be creative and that was not only her outlet, her grandchildren were those whom she drew her greatest inspiration.

Lynn was a woman of great rapport and conviction. She was extremely strong willed yet, at times, disturbingly naive. She always saw the best in everyone, sometimes to a fault and to her own detriment. She wanted the best for everyone, even if it meant less for herself. She enjoyed TV and reading and relished in watching her children and grandchildren grow and mature into adults. She fancied herself a food connoisseur yet was a woman for whom mayonnaise was too spicy. She endured many hardships, heartaches, heartbreaks and disappointments but none of it was successful in breaking her spirit. She lived her life according to the Golden Rule more than any other person I’ve known. The only criteria she required for something to be done was whether or not it was the right thing to do. Nothing else mattered.

She will be sorely missed.

Visitation will be held from 11am until 1pm on Sunday, March 6, 2022, at Flanner Buchanan-Oaklawn Memorial Gardens Connor Suite (9700 Allisonville Road, Indianapolis), followed by a Funeral Service at 1pm.