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Impact of winter road salt criticized by stormwater fee payers

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PA House Democrats want to make sure ‘Your Vote Counts’

<p>&#8220;Hey Coach!&#8221; she would shout whenever I walked in to the Grotto Pizza in Edwardsville.</p><p>That&#8217;s what Lynn Tracy would call me. I&#8217;m not sure where it came from, but that was Lynn&#8217;s name for me.</p><p>Lynn Tracy died Jan. 10 at age 60. She will be greatly missed by many, including me.</p><p>On Jan. 7, Lynn and her husband, Sean, were at the Grotto to watch the Alabama versus Clemson national championship football game. Lynn was wearing an orange sweatshirt with Clemson across the front in purple letters lined in white.</p><p>Clemson, you see, had defeated Lynn and Sean&#8217;s Notre Dame team the week before, so they wanted to be able to say that their team got knocked off by the national champions.</p><p>And because Lynn was rooting for Clemson, most of us were as well. I mean, who likes Alabama anyway. After all, we all like Lynnie, as she was affectionately called.</p><p>Lynnie&#8217;s love of Notre Dame was sincere. Sean said some of their most memorable times were spent in South Bend, Indiana. Lynnie loved it there. And she rooted for the Irish with a passion that, frankly, I once did as well.</p><p>Until Brian Kelly became the head coach of Notre Dame. Let&#8217;s just say I never liked Kelly&#8217;s approach to coaching. I never liked his temper. I never liked the way he would dress down players in front of the crowd, the other team and a viewing television audience.</p><p>So I stopped cheer, cheer, cheering for old Notre Dame. I have always been a Penn State fan as well and my attention focused on the Nittany Lions, a team not without some controversy, but they had moved on from those dark days of, well, you know.</p><p>So over the years, Lynnie and Sean would engage in some rather spirited debate with us about who was better, Penn State or Notre Dame. It was all in fun, but nevertheless spirited.</p><p>I already miss those debates and will forever.</p><p>Nicknames often have a way of sticking once they are uttered. I know because I have a few. One is &#8220;Bobby&#8221; &#8212; the name I am called by my closest of friends who I go fishing with, play fantasy football with and play cards with. It&#8217;s origin, I think, goes back to a fishing trip to Canada when I was introduced and somebody responded by saying, &#8220;Nice to meet you, Bobby.&#8221; The name stuck.</p><p>My friends who participate in Victory Sports call me &#8220;the announcer guy.&#8221; Victory is for adults with mental and/or physical challenges. The participants like that I announce the games and give them nicknames of their own.</p><p>When I arrive at the park, I hear, &#8220;Here comes the announcer guy.&#8221; I never get tired of hearing that.</p><p>I will continue to be Bobby to my buddies and I will always be the announcer guy to the Victory players. But it saddens me to think that I will never hear Lynnie call me &#8220;Coach&#8221; again. I&#8217;m sure Sean will carry on that tradition, but it just won&#8217;t be the same.</p><p>As Father Jim Tracy said during Lynn&#8217;s funeral Mass on Tuesday, &#8220;she didn&#8217;t have a mean bone in her body.&#8221; Boy was he right. By the way, Father Jim is Sean&#8217;s brother.</p><p>Some day, I don&#8217;t know when, some of this sadness will start to subside. All of us who knew and loved Lynnie will continue our normal lives, but we all will share one thing &#8212; the huge void in our lives that was once occupied by Lynnie. She was a part of us and we must carry on now without her physical presence. Her spirit will never leave us.</p><p>It will be difficult for us, but for Sean, well, as he said, he has lost his best friend, his better half. All of us will be there for Sean for whatever he needs from us and whenever he asks.</p><p>The group of friends I speak of are all having considerable difficulty dealing with Lynnie&#8217;s unexpected death. It&#8217;s something we will need time to fully understand, if ever.</p><p>What we all know is that we had Lynnie in our lives for an all too brief time. We enjoyed our time together and she will live forever in our minds and hearts.</p><p>We will tell stories over and over. We will laugh long after we have stopped crying. We will always keep a seat at the table for Lynnie because she is with us &#8212; always.</p><p>And in her honor, I will again root for Notre Dame to win every game.</p><p>I know Lynnie is smiling reading that line.</p><p>Lynnie was my friend and she was a friend to so many &#8212; they actually had to direct traffic at her wake.</p><p>God bless Lynnie, may she rest in peace. And may we all forever emulate her loving approach to life.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_Columnshot-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email at boboyle@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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