MOUNTAIN HOME — At 96 years old, Mountain Home resident Mary Lynn exercises, attends Mass almost daily and delivers holy Communion to four parishioners younger than herself — all with only three to four hours of sleep a night.
“I don’t know what I’d do with my life if I didn’t do this work that I have now,” Lynn said. “It kind of fulfills it.”
Energetic and quiet, Lynn has been a member of the Legion of Mary at St. Peter the Fisherman Church for 15 years.
Pastor Father Stan Swiderski said he’s impressed by her faithfulness.
“I think she’s one of the most faithful to the parish … with her silent, quiet ministry of prayer,” Father Swiderski said. “Her giving of herself, time and energy to the sick and homebound she visits.”
Born March 25, 1914 — the feast of the Annunciation — in Lorain, Ohio, to Polish parents Magdalene and Anthony Niedbala, Lynn was the third of 10 children. At age 8, her family moved to Detroit where her father was a steel mill worker. Though finances were tight, Lynn said “no matter what happened, we all went to a Catholic school.”
The children were active in church, but Lynn said religion was never forced.
“There was never any pushy stuff,” Lynn said. “It’s just built in us to be kind, to do things for neighbors.”
Lynn kept this attitude while raising her sons — Bill, John and Don Hutson.
“A lot of people feel like they’re religious, but I don’t feel that way,” Lynn said. “I believe in Jesus and Mary and a love of people and friends. I enjoy doing things for people.”
Lynn, who is twice widowed, said she took strength in God and friends through tough times.
Then, in 1997 while living in Gamaliel, Lynn was asked by the church if she could bring holy Communion to a few people in her town. With a little convincing from her sister, Sister Mary Dominica, she agreed.
“I thought I wasn’t worthy,” Lynn said. “I almost said no, but the thing that hit my mind was ‘I’m here, Lord, if you need me.’ I couldn’t say no.”
One of 16 active legion members, Lynn goes to meetings every Tuesday, attends annual retreats and delivers holy Communion on Thursdays. “I feel they’re a part of my family,” Lynn said. “You get to a point where you’re excited to visit them.”
The Legion of Mary is a worldwide volunteer organization and is led at St. Peter’s by spiritual director Father Innocent Okore and president Kathleen DeGroot. DeGroot said legion members “visit nursing homes, make home visits, go to the hospital, we do house blessings with the priests and house enthronements with the Sacred Heart,” as well as other church services.
When she was 91, Lynn visited Medjugorje in Bosnia — where Mary started appearing to six children on a mountain top in 1981 — for the second time with legion members. A priest traveling with the legion nicknamed Lynn the “gazelle.”
Though Lynn doesn’t spend every hour in the church, she can be seen doing God’s work — whether it’s taking her friend to a weekly hair appointment, letting someone recover from surgery in her home or simply playing card games with a lonely friend.
DeGroot said last week, Lynn spent 12 hours at only four home visits. “She sits with people, she cooks for people. If someone needs to go to a doctor’s appointment, she’ll take them,” DeGroot said. “She just never stops. She’s very spiritual and fun and somebody all of us look up to. She does everything — at 96 years old, it’s incredible.”
Lynn said she is a poor sleeper but keeps her strength by stretching or walking for an hour daily.
“If I exercise an hour, I can tell the next day how I walk and balance myself,” Lynn said.
Good circulation and balance are essential, as Lynn always wears high heels. Lynn said if other seniors volunteered and exercised, “they’d live longer, be happier and forget their aches and pains.”
Though Lynn continually touches lives through her kindness, recognition is the furthest thought from her mind, she said.
“I always tell people, ‘Don’t thank me please, thank Jesus, he’s making it possible for me to do this,’” Lynn said. “I believe God loves everyone, and I just feel like I want to see Jesus in everyone. I’m just Jesus’ feet and hands. I always pray I don’t take credit for all this.”
