Mary Sullivan Flinn

Our Mom, Mary Sullivan Flinn, passed away on Wednesday, October 28th, at the age of 89. After being diagnosed with stage-3 ovarian cancer in 2018, she attacked the 18 chemo treatments, bending but never breaking. For the next two years she kept up her active lifestyle while religiously attending to the cancer maintenance treatments at the Piedmont Cancer Institute, amazing her doctors with her strength, just-do-it attitude, and continued clean check-ups, even to the point that we thought the big guy upstairs made a mistake and that 2018 was all an aberration. But in the end, the cancer quickly spread, and weakened her body leading to a quick decline. Her mind never faltered, so as we surrounded her bedside, she checked to make sure dad was doing ok, assigned a few chores to us, told us she was proud of us, and mouthed the words of the prayers during her last rites. Mom demonstrated it best that “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over” all the way to the end. We’re all tougher and generally optimistic in our family believing we can do just about anything and we attribute that to our strong upbringing by example. Mom showed that you didn’t have to make a big deal of things, you just did it. Mom’s father, John, grew up in Yonkers, NY, and had a very successful career with The New York Life Insurance company, even without a college degree. Her mother, Mae (known to close friends as “Ikey”), came from Scotland and raised two other siblings in addition to our mom. Mom didn’t have it easy, living most of her pre-college life in a 650 square foot home with two other siblings and her parents in a rough part of Yonkers. She thought nothing of this, but aspired to have better for her future family. She won many honors at Sacred Heart High School, and then as a young math major graduate from The College of Mt. Saint Vincent in 1953, landed a job as an engineer at an essentially all male engineering firm in NYC. She never spoke like this was a big deal. You just had a goal, went for it, and didn’t stop for the accolades. Years later, after raising our family, she applied her math skills to taxes for 25+ years, preparing returns and teaching classes into her 80’s. It was a matter of pride to hear from friends and work colleagues that your mother has been doing their taxes for years. After meeting her husband, Donald, at this same MW Kellogg firm, they set off to try new things and build a family. Life and career took them from NYC, to Sacramento CA, Chicago, and then St. Louis, where they raised their family, and eventually to Atlanta where they’ve spent the last 37 years. Dad attributed the family’s successes, in a large part, to mom’s nurturing while he was traveling frequently for his job. Together they proved that taking chances, learning new things, and meeting many different people along the way made for a fulfilling and successful life. These examples have carried on to their grandkids. Mom leaves behind a large family including Donald, her husband of 64 years, along with son Don Jr. and his wife Laura of Marietta; daughter Gail Flinn in St. Louis; daughter Patti Schoenfeldt and husband Gary in Acworth GA; son Tim and his wife Erin Hand of Dunwoody GA; and daughter Kelly of Silverthorne CO. Son Kevin pre-deceased Mom due to spina bifida at one month old. In addition, Don Jr. and Laura have daughter Erin Danley along with husband Brandon, son Will, and daughter Catie in San Clemente CA; and son Patrick with wife Lindsey and sons Jack and Aaron in Chicago. Gail has son Dan in Columbus OH; and daughter Melissa Gross along with husband Preston, son Brandon, and daughter Hannah in St. Louis. Tim and Erin have daughter Meghan in Charlotte NC, and son Ian in Atlanta. Mom had two siblings. Her sister Patricia preceded her in death. Her brother, John Sullivan and wife Theresa split time between Florida and Maine. Mom was extremely close to John, and John is a major part of our family. In fact, he developed such a following that even the Today Show referred to him as Uncle John! Mom looked forward to her annual trips to Florida or Maine to see John and Theresa, and it took a pandemic to change those plans! Lastly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention all of the Weimaraners we’ve brought into her life that she more or less adopted. They certainly loved visits to Grandma’s house and trips to the beach with her. Mom also leaves behind many friends including a wonderful base of Atlanta friends that congregate weekly on Saturdays for their Mexican dinners; and then Sunday mornings for Biscuits & More. For years, Sunday mornings also meant long hikes on the many trails around Atlanta with those same friends and Weimaraners. Many of these friends lovingly referred to Mom as St. Mary, a tribute to how wonderful she was as a person maintaining a gentle manner and set of principles, while talking about her offspring instead of herself. As Dad reminds us and friends have told us, Mom’s pride and joy were her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. With so many athletes in the family, Mom attended hundreds of games in many states. She was also known for her chocolate icing, lasagna, and apple dumpling recipes, as well as her incredible memory. All of us have tried to replicate her food specialties, but we know the real challenge will now be documenting instead of calling on grandma for her recall. Mom also had recipes for both longevity and a full quality of life consisting of miles of hiking late into life, always keeping her mind active, taking many trips to Hilton Head with her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, trips to Maine, maintaining an active life with a great group of friends, and no doubt a drinking a Cazadores margarita or two every weekend for 30+ years. Somehow, we suspect Mom was hurting more than she ever let on, but check-ups and demeanor never indicated this. We miss her greatly already, and know that holidays, weekend Mexican and biscuits, beach trips, and kid events will never be the same. We will be celebrating her life with an 11 AM service at the Catholic Church of St. Ann in Marietta on Wednesday, November 4th. The service will be live-streamed. In-person attendance will require reservations for the COVID protocol.   In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Foundation for Women’s Cancer Society of Gynecologic Oncology 26533 Network Place Chicago, IL 60673-1286 To make donations by mail, go to https://www.foundationforwomenscancer.org/wp-content/uploads/Donation-Form_2020-Update.pdf To make donation on-line, go to https://www.foundationforwomenscancer.org/support-us/donate/