Barbara Jean Lamb

Barbara passed away peacefully in her sleep on Friday May 10, 2024 in Laguna Hills, CA. She was born on March 12th, 1944 to Harry Coleman Lamb and Ruth Pedrick Atkinson in New Jersey. She has two younger sisters, Judith and Deborah. She first married Tom McKinney on December 6th, 1965 in Oxnard, CA. She has one daughter Janet Theologidy. She was a high school English teacher for over 30 years in Oxnard and Lancaster, CA. She retired in 2008 and moved to Orange County to be closer with her daughter's family in 2014. She is survived by her daughter Janet, her daughter's husband Jake, and Barbara's two grandchildren, Alex and Alice.

Barbara Lamb’s Eulogy

June 8, 2024

Jake Theologidy

First, I would like to thank everybody here for coming, especially those who traveled from out of state. We really appreciate that. We are all here to celebrate Barbara’s life and to support Janet and her family.

I met Barbara about 37 years ago and yes she did introduce me to Janet. As you all know, she became my beautiful wife for all these years. I would be lying to you if I told you that her life was full of rose petals and sunshine. It was not. She had a very difficult life, full of challenges, both psychologically, mentally and physically. She was a child of the Sixties. Her adulthood was influenced by growing up through the Sixties and she became pretty strong to the feminist movement through the Sixties. So much so that I think she really emphasized her independence as a female. Her career as a teacher was important to her. She really boasted to a lot of people, whomever she met, saying “I’m an independent person, I have my own career, I have a Master’s degree, I bought houses on my own.” She was really proud of herself as career driven female. After her divorce from Janet’s dad, she didn’t even want any child support from her ex-husband. She was determined to raise Janet on her own.

When she turned 65, she retired after 30 years as a teacher. A few years after that she moved into our house to be closer to us. Her health started to decline. But then I noticed something changed about her. She stopped talking about herself and started to tell other people about how it was she who introduced Janet to me. Every new neighbor she met, every party she went to, every family get together, you would hear the same thing. Barbara would say, “Did you know that I introduced those two, Janet and Jake.” I thought she was just getting older and being silly. But then I realized maybe she wasn’t trying to be silly. Maybe Barbara finally realized that it was no longer important to talk about her accomplishments in her education, career and her independence. Maybe she realized that her greatest achievement was introducing the two of us. Because by that action, it brought her daughter so much happiness. It brought her two wonderful grandchildren. And it brought her daughter something she could never achieve, a good husband. Her selfish tout had turned into an unselfish boast. And in turn, she has something else so much more profound to be proud of.

Today we celebrate her life. Today we pray that Barbara is in heaven, laying on a cloud basking in that heavenly sun, catching up on her tan. She is probably chatting it up with her sister Jude and catching up with her parents. And as every saint that passes by, every angel that flies by, I can see Barbara stopping them and pointing down at Janet and me, saying to all heavenly souls, “See those two, I introduced Janet to Jake.” Yes you did Barbara and we thank you so much for doing that. We love you and we miss you. Thank you.