Lyn D. Robinson

Durham - Lyn D. Robinson, age 81, of Durham, NC died peacefully ineer sleep from complications of Alzheimer's disease on Sunday, December 7, 2014 at Croasdaile Village Retirement Community. Lyn -- loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend -- taught us patience and kineess. When Pandora opened the box and let fly all, save hope, Lyn picked up the box and shared hope and cheerful kineess with all she knew. She and her identical twin sister, Ann, were born ineennessee to parents who were school teacher. After graduating from Butler Uneersity in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lyn taught at Medlock School ineeKalb County, Georgia. One year her students, as a class gift, gave her a parakeet need ???Ricky Bird,??? who learned to talk and whom she cherished and remembered in stories shared with caregivers and family. Married for 53 years, Lyn, and her husband Hugh Robinson, lived in Durham and, post- retirement, in Superior, CO. In 2009, they moved back to the Durham area to be close to family. In Durham, Lyn was a devoted mother and homemaker until her two boys, Scott and Mark, finished grade school. She cooked delicious meals for nightly family dinners, canned and pickled garden bounty, and kept the household running smoothly, organizing family activities. Lyn was a fun mom, not just planning or shuttling her boys to activities such as daily swimming in the summer; she loved picnicking, hiking, fishing and building quilt-and-card-table forts on rainy days. One time, being from Indianapolis, she and her sister took their kids to a memorable car-racineevening, which included a figure-8 car race followed by a crash-up derby of the remaining competitors. Lyn was a leader in the communities to which she belonged: voluneering as tutor for literacy-challenged youth in Durham at the Fayetteville Street Elementary School, teaching 5th to 8th grades at Durham Academy, and as the floor maneer at Duke Uneersity Bookstore, from which she retired when Lyn and Hugh moved to Superior, Colorado. Lyn continued to lead as an active member of the Delta Gamma sorority, the League of Women Voters, the First Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina, including being a soprano in the choir, and later at the St. Aneews Presbyterian Church in Boulder, Colorado. Ineer mid-life years, she bowled in a women???s league, played neighborhood bridge and was a member of the garden club. For many years, she and her husband were avid gardeners, both vegetable and flower. In Colorado, she made weekly trips to deliver many of the fresh vegetables they grew to a local food bank. Amongst other horticultural pursuits, Lyn loved orchids and other tropical plants, including tending to, at one time, over one thousand African violets that she hybridized and, on occasion, sold to local stores. Lyn pursued her true, artistic passion -- creating quilts -- since the late 1960???s. She was an active member of quilting clubs, ABC Quilts, and quilting documentation groups, and had many friends, both young and old, in that community. Possessing a strong affinity for nature and a love for animals and national parks, the family spent many vacations over recent years fishing on the NC Outer Banks, visiting Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave NP in the summer, and Death Valley in winter. One family favorite was visiting the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, especially the Cades Cove area, for picnics alongside creeks, and viewing wildlife, including black bear, deer and wild turkey. Remembering Lyn are her loving husband, Hugh, son Mark and grandson Roman, son Scott and daughter-in-law Elizabeth, sister Ann and Ann???s family, relatives and friends. The family invites you to celebrate Lyn's life by reading a book, making a quilt, watching birds and animals, or taking time to sample nature's beauty on a walk outdoors. A service will be held at 10AM on Saturday, December 13th, 2014, at Croasdaile Village Few Chapel. In lieu of flowers or other gifts, please make memorial donations to a charitable cause of your choice. Condolences may be submitted at https://www.hallwynne.com/