Petoskey           Duplicate   Bridge Center
       (PDBC) 

With a potluck dinner and 18 boards of Thursday night duplicate, two dozen club members bade Lynne Parker an emotional "au revoir" May 11.

The event, organized by Arlene Loca and Jan Coltman, was a recognition of all the roles Lynne has played at the club since she moved to Petoskey in 2011. She was been a director for five years, offering a mini-lesson each Tuesday before play began.

She recruited new players, including by volunteering instruction last year in the club's effort to engage new players. Most recently she directed a new Thursday night game that attracted several players who could not play in the working-hour session.

Jonathan Friendly, whom Lynne introduced to duplicate five years ago, said she inspired others through her patience and kindness. " She taught me by example how to forgive and move on, how to work for the next board and the one after that. It was not so much that she showed me the new bidding systems and conventions but that she showed me the emotional attitudes you need to be a good player.

"And even more than that, she showed me how to become a friend," he said.

Wiping away an occasional tear, Lynne spoke of bringing her mother to play at the club and of the kindness that players showed her Mom, even when her game began slipping. She talked about all the friends she had made at the club.

"You are my family," she said.

Lynne has bought a home in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama, where she had spent the two previous winters and had found interesting bridge play at two active clubs there.