Obituary of Martha Lynas

April 14, 1931 – Belfast, Ireland

March 17, 2024 – Calgary, Alberta

Martha “Meta” Lynas (nee Jackson) passed away on Sunday, March 17, 2024, St. Patrick’s Day. A fitting day for an Irish Colleen to be called home to join her husband, Martin.

Meta was born April 14, 1931, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she attended Mount Pottinger School, and later a commercial college where she learned shorthand and bookkeeping. She didn’t enjoy office work and felt that her real passion was to become a nurse. Unbeknownst to her family, she applied and was accepted to the Royal Victoria Hospital Nursing School in Belfast. Upon graduation, she went to Edinburgh to study midwifery. Back in Belfast, she was employed at the Royal Victoria Hospital as a Ward Sister, where she had the privilege of working with Dr. Frank Pantridge, who designed and created the first portable defibrillator.

While working at the Royal Victoria, she met the Reverend Martin Lynas. They married in 1957 and thereafter began a lifelong team ministry. They served on the Pettigo Circuit situated on the Fermanagh and Donegal border, and then in Holywood, County Down. In 1968, they immigrated to Didsbury, Alberta, Canada. Meta had an opportunity to return to nursing at the Didsbury Auxiliary Hospital and when they moved to Calgary in 1976, she worked at Carewest Glenmore Park, then Carewest Fanning Centre, and ended her nursing career as an industrial nurse for Sears.

Meta was an active member of every congregation she attended — from teaching Sunday School, starting up Girls’ Brigade groups in Northern Ireland and then CGIT groups in Canada, leading women’s groups, organizing teas, singing in choirs, and visiting the elderly and shut-ins after retirement with Martin.

She was a loving, caring, and supportive mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and mother-in-law, who took pride in all her family members' accomplishments.

Meta is survived by her loving family: her daughters Heather (Dieter) and Joy (Sandy); son Robin (Jackie), four grandchildren, Neil (Phoebe) and Kevin Dorin, Samantha and Taylor Lynas; and two great-grandchildren, Declan and Evie Dorin. She is also survived by her two brothers, Reggie (Jean) and Billy (Grace) Jackson, as well as nephews, nieces, and many others who called her a friend. She is predeceased by her much-loved husband Martin, her mother Agnes, father William, and brother Terry (Amy).

Meta will be welcomed into God’s embrace and hear these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Memorial Services will be held at Lakeview United Church (3023 63 Ave SW Calgary, AB) on Sunday, April 14, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., with a reception to follow in the church.

The service will be recorded and available shortly after the service on the Lakeview United Church YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@lakeviewunitedchurchcalgar7055.

If friends so desire, memorial tributes may be made directly to The United Church of Canada, Mission and Service Fund at 3250 Floor Street West, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4, Telephone: 416-231-5931, https://united-church.ca/donate, or to Hope for a New Life in Nepal – The Presbyterian Church in Canada https://donate.presbyterian.ca/give/gifts-of-change/provide-hope-for-a-new-life-in-nepal/.

Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared and viewed with Meta’s family here.

In living memory of Meta Lynas, a tree will be planted in the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes, Park Memorial, 5008 Elbow Drive SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2L5, Telephone: 403-243-8200.