Fond memories of Mom in South Pasadena, CA where I grew up. "Mom, what can we do?" "Can we go to the beach?" The answer was almost always yes. So off to the Santa Monica on the freeway past downtown LA in the station wagon. We would body surf and ride the go carts when boys could still wander around unsupervised safely. That’s a great mom there! I don’t care who you are! She always gave my older brother Dennis and I lots of freedom and responsibility. My other brother Matt and sister Shauna enjoyed lots of freedom also. In addition, Mom was a great friend. After high school I moved to Arcata for College and shortly thereafter, Dad (Jim) and Mom (Lynn) relocated to Atherton in San Francisco Bay area.
Mom had a prestigious job at Sunset Magazine. Everybody knows they threw the best parties. In the true tradition of the “McCarthy Clan”.
In 2000, Mom found her dream house on the Smith River in Gasquet. The back deck was “the place to be” on Gasquet Raft Race weekend. She would escape the raindrops in winter, by also living at the Saddlecreek area in Copperopolis, CA where they met some lifelong friends in addition to the quality folks in Gasquet.
Welcoming, generous, unselfish are a few adjectives that come to mind. What a great wife of sixty-six years to Dad and I guess you know now, a wonderful mom.
She fought the emphysema hard and passed in the end peacefully with Dad and I by her bedside. We just wish she could have enjoyed that last bowl of ice cream she requested just before she went to be with Shauna in Heaven.
In loving memory, the McCarthy Family