Mollie M. Lakin Obituary (1919 - 2023)

Mollie Lakin passed away peacefully Tuesday, January 17th. Beloved wife of the late Philip Lakin. Dear mother to Harriette (Jack) Kraus and Robert (Pamela Braverman) Lakin. Dear Grandmother to David (Traci) Kraus, Lauren Kraus, Ruth (Zack Fagan) Lakin, Miriam Lakin (Eva Friedman), and Jonah Lakin. Beloved Great-Grandmother to Lilyan, Brooklyn, and Cameron Kraus, and Sophie Fagan. Many dear nieces, nephews, and cousins. Mollie was known for her warmth and kindness, as well as her amazingly positive outlook on life. She was a friend to all she met and a true inspiration to all who knew her. Raised in Boston, the middle child of 10, she put herself through school and started her career with a fur company. Learning to play golf to work with clients, she excelled in the sport. During a singles weekend at Grossingers in the Catskills, she was paired with Phil and a week later, they were engaged. Mollie — then Mollie M. Monson — never hesitated to admit that her meeting Philip Lakin was the classic “love at first sight”. What followed was a marriage and love affair for the ages, both of them would say. Each was devoted to the other and that continued beyond Phil’s death in 1995. Married for 44 years, they made a beautiful life together in Columbus. Over the years, Mollie was an avid sports woman — golf, tennis, bowling — who was also active in the Columbus Jewish community, through Hadassah, B’nai Brith and National Council of Jewish Women. In the 1970’s, she taught Jewish cooking classes to students at the OSU Hillel House. She helped to organize some of the first yoga classes at the Jewish Center. Mollie loved to play cards and mahjong, organizing regular games and teaching younger players how to play. She was so grateful for the life she was given. Her friends became her family and her family was everything to her. Even in aging, she embraced the care and love she was given by the staff at Wexner Heritage House The family is forever grateful to the amazing staff — past and present — of Wexner Heritage House, where Mollie was a volunteer, family member, and, in recent years, a resident. In Mollie's memory donations may be made to the Wexner Heritage Village (www.whv.org/donate/). A funeral service will be held at 2:00pm, Friday, January 20, Wexner Heritage House, 1151 College Ave., Columbus followed by burial at the New Agudas Achim Cemetery. Her children will observe the start of shiva following the burial, at Wexner Heritage House,