Family, school mourn Braintree teen

For her first English assignment as a senior at Braintree High School, Maggie Lynch wrote an essay about her life, calling it blessed and saying that she was "extremely lucky to live it."

A month later, her family and the school community are struggling to cope with the loss of the popular 17-year-old, who died late Saturday in a fall at her Ash Street home.

It could be a matter of weeks before autopsy results are released, said David Traub, a spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney's office. Traub said Lynch's injuries appeared to be consistent with a fall from the second story of the house.

Lynch, one of five siblings to go through the Braintree school system, was an honor roll student and captain of the girls' lacrosse team, her father, Michael Lynch, said in a telephone interview last night. Her constant smile and sense of humor made her extremely well-liked, he said.

"What can I say? Everyone liked her," he said. "She was just a blessing - and it's gone."

Braintree High School opened its doors Monday, and more than 200 people gathered to remember Lynch, said headmaster David Swanton.

"She was a vibrant young woman," Swanton said, adding that grief counselors have been made available to students. "Certainly our senior class has been rocked by this."

The Lynch home has been visited by a stream of mourners, including each of the girl's teachers, Michael Lynch said. "It's been an unbelievable outpouring," he said.

In addition to her father, she leaves her mother, Margaret, two brothers, Michael and Timothy, and two sisters, Colleen and Emma, all of Braintree, and her grandmothers, Julia McMahon and Mary Kerr Lynch.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Thomas More Church in Braintree.

"It's going to be a big undertaking for the community," Swanton said. "Something like this . . . you can just never prepare."