OBIT: Linda Austin, School Nurse at St. Hedwig Catholic School

From a submission:

Linda Louise Austin

Aug. 8, 1944-Oct. 27, 2014

Linda loved the ludicrous. She loved to laugh, and she had a special gift for putting others at ease.

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When she was 11, her family moved from Metamora to Washington, Ill., and Linda knew her little sisters Mary Jo and Julie were nervous about the move. So she went to the house first, tied tootsie pops to a tree branch and stuck it in the ground. When the girls got to the house, their fears were replaced by the wonder of the tootsie pop tree.

After a life spent comforting others ad vanquishing the ordinary, the girl who could grow tootsie pops died early Monday morning surrounded by the people who loved her. She is survived by her husband Richard, her daughters Megan Haller, Shannon Zouzoulas and Paige Austin, her seven grandchildren and three sisters.

Born in Maryland but raised in Illinois, Linda studied nursing at St. Francis. She helped deliver babies at Long Beach Memorial and spent two decades working for the Orange County Jail. For years, she volunteered as the school nurse at St. Hedwig Catholic School in Los Alamitos.

She had beautiful green eyes, and she knew it. When she was young, an autograph seeker mistook her for Faye Dunaway. She couldn’t sing, but that never stopped her. She sang at the top of her lungs and made up her own lyrics.

She told preposterous tales, and her protagonists always ended up laughingly embracing the ridiculous. They were versions of her – a jail nurse nicknamed ‘Nurse Nice.’ Her ribald wit and gentle spirit comforted countless wretches.

She wore the same polyester pants almost every day. Her closet held dozens of versions in blue, brown and black. She entertained guests in her nightgown, holding court with coffee and cigarettes. She was hard of hearing, but selectively so. She dominated Words With Friends, and designed elaborate treasure hunts for grandkids. She played the slot machines and always won because her final tally never included money spent. She collected cookbooks but hated to cook. However, she bake like a fiend.

If she didn’t like you, you didn’t know it because she was nice to everyone. Either she was born without a mean bone in her body or she understood that life is hard enough without hard feelings.

Here is what she was really good at: love. She was married to Richard Austin for 44 years. When she retired after 45 years of nursing, she baked him cookies every day. Though she had three daughters, many people called her “mom.” She bragged about her girls, two winemakers and a writer. She told them they were beautiful no matter what. She called them 10 times a day. She bought all her Christmas presents by August but couldn’t keep them a secret, so she went out and bought more. She loved to give.

The world is achingly less magical today without tootsie pop trees and Linda Austin.

A Funeral Mass will be held for Linda at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 3 at St. Hedwig Church in Los Alamitos.

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