Lynn Patricia Killian passed away on June 9, 2020 at the age of 64. Her passing was sudden and unexpected. Her family and friends now walk suspended in unreality somewhere between disbelief and grief. But they are uplifted by the memory of her welcoming smile, her joyful and musical laugh, a caring heart eager to serve family and community and her deeply held convictions. A favorite saying of hers is a bedrock of comfort now. “Life is not about weathering the storms. It is about learning to dance in the rain.”

Lynn's dance of life embraced everyone. Born and raised in Liberty, New York she eagerly served her community. Lynn was a charter member of the Liberty Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary. As president of the Liberty Chamber of Commerce, she conceptualized and organized the Liberty 4th of July street festival for several years. She served on the Liberty Town Council leading the development and adoption of Liberty's Comprehensive Planning document through difficult and tumultuous discussion.

Lynn began her professional life bringing joy and education to adults and children living with severe disabilities. Her goal was to help them achieve their own happiness. She transitioned into the Killian family business as the office manager of Farkill Communications. Later in life Lynn founded and built her own business. Again dancing in the rain, she nurtured the business into one of great success, providing service to new businesses opening in Sullivan County and beyond. Lynn would rise in the morning while still dark to complete applications and send them to Albany. But never one to let the business of making a living get in the way of joy, laughter and fellowship, she would regularly leave her home office and travel to the White Sulphur Springs Inn for lunch and laughter with a cadre of friends.

But it is truly family and friends in which her heart and soul is grounded. Her Benton Hollow home was the family gathering place whether for Thanksgiving dinner, birthdays, Easter brunch or just the silly times of Friday Night Happy Hour, which she hosted each week, cooking dinner for all, orchestrating a night of conversation, laughter and good feeling - always faced the next morning with a mess but never uttering a complaint. Lynn took regular vacations with five of her close high school friends - Kathleen, Kim, Mariellen, Colleen and Nancy. It is said that these vacations involved much frivolity and a ritual of howling at the moon.

Lynn was not necessarily a religious woman but she was deeply spiritual. Her cathedral was Benton Hollow, its mountains, streams, ponds, trees, flowers and wild life. She passionately embraced the earth and all its creatures, the large and the small, the cute and the annoying. Lynn even tried her hand at beekeeping, with the goal of lifting the honeybee population and assisting in healthy pollination. It didn't go so well. A pesky bear interrupted that project three times. And Lynn danced in the rain.

Lynn was predeceased by her mother, Jeanne, her father, Leon, and her brothers, Mike and John. She is survived by her beloved daughter and best friend, Mikaela, her brother, Patrick, sister-in-law, Elissa, nieces and nephews - Travis Atkins, Charles, Alison, William and Harrison and her cousins - Andy, Carol, Dean and Martha.

Her family and friends will weather this storm and once again learn to dance in the rain.

Visitation will be Sunday, June 14, 2020 from 4 to 7 pm at the Harris Funeral Home, West St. at Buckley, Liberty, NY. Social distancing guidelines must be met, a limited number of people at one time will be allowed in the funeral home, facemasks are required.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be Celebrated Monday, June 15, 2020 at 10am in St. Peter's Church, 262 No. Main Street, Liberty, NY. Father Edward Bader will officiate.

Burial will be in St. Peter's Cemetery, Liberty, NY.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Harris Funeral Home, West St. at Buckley, Liberty, NY. www.Harris-FH.com 845-292-0001 or 845-439-5200.