Clare Lynch

Clare died on October 14, 2017 from metastasized cancer while under hospice care at Penn Medicine Neighborhood Health, West Chester. She was born on September 18, 1940 in Albany, NY to Thomas James Lynch and Katherine Miller Lynch. Her father died in 1953 and her mother died in 1981 after having remarried Edwin Miley. Clare is survived by her younger sister, Karen Bayers, of Brunswick, ME, mother of Leslie Bayers and grandmother to Connor, Aiden and Hakon. Clare’s older sister, Ann Ortlip, died in 1996 and for whole children Clare was a generous and wise aunt in their mother’s absence: Donna Ortlip, James (Maria Elena) with children Austin and Colin, the now-deceased Kathy Wadell with son Dylan, and her namesake niece, Clare Barger of Chicago. Clare and her two sisters grew up on Worrell Street, Chester. Clare attended Notre Dame High School, Moylan, PA, class of ’58 before attending Jefferson School of Nursing in Philadelphia on a scholarship. Upon graduation in 1961, she began nursing at old Sacred Heart Hospital in Chester before transferring to the dialysis unit of Crozer Hospital, being one of its first employees and a mentor to many other nurses hired into the growing practice. When the renal practice opened another facility in Chester County, Clare transferred to Exton to assist in its establishment. She retired from nephrology nursing in 2004 and undertook part-time nursing posts thereafter. While her long professional life was marked by nursing expertise, it was her acquisition of life-long friends that was an especial characteristic of her life. With these friends she worked, dined, travelled and at the end was surrounded by them as her cancer sites grew. Her Funeral Mass is at St. Maximilian Kolbe Roman Catholic Church, 15 E. Pleasant Grove Road, West Chester, PA 19382, on Saturday, October 21, at 11 a.m., with a period of Visitation in the church thirty minutes beforehand. Interment private at St. Peter and Paul Cemetery. See www.danjolell.com/obituaries for her remembrance page. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society or a charity of your choice.