Remembering Judy Mullin
By Brian P. Nanos
Tue Nov 25, 2008, 04:09 PM EST

Scituate -

For many years, Judy Mullin’s house on Vernon Road seemed big enough.

That house was large enough to hold her and her husband Edward as they raised four children.

It had space enough, after those children moved out, to hold the countless trophies she won at sporting events and to serve as an inviting haven to others, children of family and neighbors, who needed someplace to go.

In recent years, it was comfortable enough to hold weddings and other functions held by Mullin’s now grown children, who would not consider holding these events without the woman who was confined to the house because of her amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

But last weekend, after Judy Mullin died Nov. 20 at age 63, family, friends and neighbors — some people her family couldn’t recognize — came to the house to pay their respects to the woman who meant so much to themselves, their communities and their families. (See obituary on page 11.)

“It was the only time that I ever thought that this house wasn’t big enough,” Mullin’s daughter Vicki Mullin Gorelik said,

“She was literally involved in everything,” Mullin’s son Mike said.

In Scituate, Mullin was known as an avid tennis and golf player, director of the children’s choir and organizer of the Christmas pageant at St. Mary of the Nativity Church, a coach and a member of the board of directors of the Scituate Little League and a member of the Scituate Beautification Committee. She was Scituate High School girls tennis coach for nine years. She was the Archdiocese of Boston’s 2006 Woman of the Year.

“She just touched so many lives; there were so many facets to her,” said Ann Healy, Mullin’s friend and neighbor for more than 35 years

After Mullin was diagnosed with ALS in 2004, her family and friends began the annual Judy’s Walk for Hope to benefit continued ALS research. The walk has raised more than $160,000 for ALS research, and before the most recent event this October, Gorelik noted that most of the people who came to the walk over the years were people who had personal relationships with her mother.

Edward noted the large number of attendees at Judy’s funeral service Monday, Nov. 24, at St. Mary of the Nativity.

“The church was full,” he said. “I think it was pretty humbling to me, personally, that she meant so much to them. She touched their lives.”

Judy’s children remember her as an attentive mother, always keeping involved in their activities. They also remember her getting involved in the lives of other children who needed it.

“She wasn’t just a mother to us, she was a mother to the community,” Mike said.

Barbara Sullivan, another long-time friend and neighbor who described Judy as “bubbly” and “vivacious,” remembered Judy’s giving character.

“If anyone needed help she was the first one to do it,” Sullivan said.

After last weekend’s outpouring of support, Gorelik and the rest of the family have again seen the impact her mother has had on the lives of those in the community.

“She knew everybody and everybody knew her,” she said.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/scituate/...ng-Judy-Mullin