She Had a Nice Smile

Terry Lenkner in 1987

A Eulogy for My Mom

Thank you for being here today. (July 16, 2023)

The author with an ASL interpreter at Terry Lenkner’s Celebration of Life memorial service.

Theresa Lenkner was Terry to her many friends and almost everyone in her family. She was mom to me. I’m Richard Medugno. The second of her six children.

Mom was 86 years old when she passed away last month. She had me when she was 22, so if you do the math, I was blessed and fortunate to have her for 64 years! That’s a long time…and I have stories.

It’s difficult, if not impossible to summarize a life of almost 90 years into a 10-minute eulogy — so I’m not going to try. But I want to share a few great memories that I hope will give everyone here a more complete picture of the woman we’re celebrating today.

Irish-Catholic Family in Boston
Terry was born and raised in Somerville, Mass. (a suburb of Boston). Her parents Michael Welby and Margaret Conneally were Irish immigrants from Connemara, County Galway. Mom had two twin sisters, Mary and Margaret (Peggy), who were 3 years older, and a younger sister, Dorothy, who was four years younger.