Mary Schmohl

On January 2nd, 2025, Mary Lynne Schmohl Hamilton danced into the arms of God. She is now spending eternity celebrating in the presence of her Savior.

Mary Lynne was born in Richmond, VA on February 20th, 1993 to John and Beth Schmohl. She grew up as a proud big sister to her younger brother, Trey, who remained one of her biggest supporters and inspirations. In 2011 she graduated from The Collegiate School and continued on to the University of North Carolina, where she graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Religious Studies, academic choices that reflected her prodigious intellect and her deep faith.

From an early age Mary Lynne always surrounded herself with a devoted and close group of friends who gravitated towards her positivity, loyalty, and grace. Whether it was with her friends from childhood, high school, her sorority sisters from Chi Omega, or newer friends from her adult life, Mary Lynne never settled for surface level connections but instead pursued deep, affectionate relationships. When Mary Lynne loved something, she chased after it with a fierceness driven by her competitive spirit.

After graduating from North Carolina, Mary Lynne moved to Atlanta where, in the closing months of 2015, she reconnected with Reid Hamilton, a college acquaintance, and the two immediately fell deeply in love. On February 29th, 2020 Mary Lynne married Reid, the love of her life, and embarked on the joyous journey of seeking to honor the Lord in their marriage together.

In February of 2018, Mary Lynne was diagnosed with a rare central nervous cancer, a life-altering challenge that she faced head on. True to her character, Mary Lynne used this affliction as another opportunity to shine light. Never naive about her diagnosis, she nonetheless remained remarkably resilient, and she faced various treatments and setbacks with a defiant positivity, all the while leaning on her faith, husband, family, and friends.

Mary Lynne was a journaler, a planner and a list-maker; admitting that she sometimes struggled to cede control even in the face of a disease that rendered many aspects of life uncontrollable, she nonetheless left room in her life for exuberant spontaneity and was always ready for an adventure, especially alongside Reid. For a self-proclaimed couch potato who loved binge-watching Saturday Night Live, cozying up under a blanket to read Harry Potter, or enjoying a puzzle or a game of Uno, Mary Lynne also loved traveling and being outside, especially on the Quad in Chapel Hill, on the beach at Emerald Isle, on the shores of Lake Rabun, or in her backyard in Atlanta with her beloved dog Tater. Mary Lynne grew to enjoy fly-fishing, partly because Reid loved it and she craved any excuse to be with him, but also because she loved immersing herself in God's creation (though she could do without the bugs and sometimes without the dirt).

For nearly a decade, Mary Lynne remained a loyal employee of Comcast Corporation, working in analytics and finance. She was proud of her work and her professional accomplishments. A woman of immense business acumen, she relished the challenges her work presented, but more importantly she enjoyed the opportunities to form connections with her coworkers and teammates in spite of the challenges presented by her diagnosis and a global pandemic.

Mary Lynne latched on to any excuse to celebrate and gather others around her. Trying to drag her off the dance floor at weddings was an impossible task. She had decorations and attire for nearly every occasion and especially enjoyed festive pursuits around Halloween, Christmas, and the Fourth of July. She looked forward to celebrating others and almost never failed to recognize birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, or the birth of children. A firm believer in words of affirmation, she was quick and generous in her expressions of love and gratitude.

The world was Mary Lynne's dance floor. From her childhood, Mary Lynne was a dancer, and though she shined on the stage or during recitals, she was never more graceful or radiant than when she danced on what seemed to outsiders to be a seemingly random impulse. Whether engaging in "toothbrush dances" in the mirror with her husband, leaping off the couch and jigging to an especially catchy jingle in a commercial, or twirling to music while cooking with Reid in the kitchen, Mary Lynne never missed an opportunity to express her joy.

In the spring of 2020, less than a month into her joyous marriage with Reid, Mary Lynne received the horrible news that her cancer had recurred and spread to her brain. She lived much of her adult life with the knowledge and perspective of her own mortality, yet with the Hope of her immortality in the company of her Lord. Alongside her faithful husband, she faced treatments and surgeries not without fear or worry, but with a courageous refusal to allow that fear to shape her life or crush her spirit. Emblematically, she defined herself in her opposition to cancer, proudly supporting the National Brain Tumor Society by fundraising for her team, ML's Milers, in the Race for Hope, advocating for cancer survivors and research through NBTS's Head to the Hill, and working with physicians to deliberate on federal research grants as part of the Peer Review Cancer Research Committee.

Mary Lynne is survived by her husband, Reid; her father and mother, John and Beth Schmohl; her brother, Trey Schmohl; her in-laws, John and Susan Hamilton; her brother-in-law John and his wife Becca Hamilton; her sister-in-law Virginia and her husband John Stelling; her nieces and nephews, John, Haley, and Mary Walker Hamilton, and Hamilton and Louise Stelling, of whom she was fiercely proud; her Grandparents, Barbara Shepherd Malkove, and John and Ruth Schmohl; and many, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Though the agony of her passing is immeasurable, her loved ones remain encouraged by the same scripture that Mary Lynne herself leaned on so often: "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:21-23).

Services will be held on Monday January 13 at 1:00 PM at Trinity Anglican Church, 2270 Defoor Hills Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 with an additional celebration of life in Richmond VA to be scheduled for a later date this summer. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the CERN Program at the National Brain Tumor Society on behalf of Mary Lynne and her Race for Hope Team, ML's Milers, or to Trinity Anglican Church - Atlanta.

CERN Program at the National Brain Tumor Society

https://secure.braintumor.org/site/Donation2?df_id=8023&mfc_pref=T&8023.donation=form1

Trinity Anglican Church - Atlanta

https://atltrinity.churchcenter.com/giving