Lynn M. Baciuska Sr.’s Afton roots were strong and deep.
Baciuska, 67, was a well-known business owner, contractor, dairy farmer and volunteer who, among other things, built a new cross for the North Afton Methodist Church and a roof on the town gazebo.
His roots stretched to his great-grandparents who are buried in a community cemetery that the lifelong North Afton resident helped tend.
He did all this while coping with a series of health problems including a bout with cancer and a 16-year battle with multiple sclerosis.
So when Lynn died in December in an automobile crash caused by an allegedly drunk driver, it left “a hole in this area that may never be filled,” Jim Wayman, a lifelong friend, said.
The community rallied around the family. Some 480 people signed a condolence book at the funeral home. The Afton River Club donated food and space for the post-funeral reception. The Main Street Grill, along with family friend Joe Leonard, supplied cakes and other food.
The support continued after the funeral when friends and acquaintances contributed to a GoFundMe account (gofundme.com/in-loving-memory-of-lynn-baciuska) set up to help his widow, Synthia, cover funeral and other expenses since Lynn was not able to carry life insurance due to his health issues.A total of nearly $12,000 has been raised to date.
In addition, Afton High School’s SADD chapter, together with Afton Driver Education, sponsored a Jan. 25 Brooks BBQ fundraiser that featured the auction of 43 gift baskets donated by local businesses.
“He was one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet,” said Joe Leonard, a friend for more than 50 years. “When most people would give up (because of his health problems), Lynn never gave up. He just kept doing.”
An avid outdoorsman
Lynn grew up a farm kid. He was an active 4-H member who showed cows and competed in public speaking contests as far away as New York City. Ribbons and a large metal plaque from those days are still tucked away in his North Afton home.
Hunting, fishing, trapping and the outdoors were passions. Synthia said she found this out when they were courting and some of their dates involved hiking into the woods to tap trees for maple syrup.
Other dates involved coon hunting excursions. She even got lost once, she remembered, with a laugh. While that ended her coon hunting days, their relationship survived.
The couple were married for 47 years.
Lynn was a proud lifetime member of the New York State Trappers Association and for 40 years ran the North Afton Deer Shop that was known to hunters across the state and Northeast for processing deer carcasses into meat during hunting season.
He stayed active even as multiple sclerosis and cancer took their toll on his body.
Getting around took determination and grit. Lynn used an electric wheelchair and other inventive devices he rigged up himself. One such device was a holder for his walker that he built and mounted on the side of his van.
In later years, he kept a small step stool in the van to help him get into the vehicle. The painstaking process involved sitting on the stool to get his feet and toes into a belt, and then lifting his feet up with his arms and swinging them into the van.
“To watch him in the condition he was in do what he did was amazing,” said Jaime Baciuska, one of his three sons.
A local businessman
Lynn was a jack of all trades who held a series of jobs throughout his life including working as a meat cutter for Grand Union, running his own contracting business and working as a dairy farmer on the family homestead.
For six years in the 1990s, he and his wife owned and operated the Afton Bake Shop after taking over the shop from the original owner.
The shop was known for its doughnuts that no one else could duplicate, family members said. One such doughnut was the “nutty buddy,” a raised doughnut featuring white cream filling, a maple glazed top and crushed walnuts. “Ask anybody around here, and that’s one of the doughnut they remember,” said Jaime Baciuska, who helped out at the stop along with his two brothers, Lynn Jr. and Cody.
But the business that was probably closest to Lynn’s heart was the North Afton Deer Shop. Not only was he proud of the shop’s reputation with customers, but he also enjoyed kibitzing with hunters and listening to their stories, Cody Baciuska said.
And he was always ready with a joke and humorous comment himself.
Lynn stayed involved in running the shop until the day he was killed. He also stayed involved in supervising his construction business. When multiple sclerosis meant he could no longer climb into a bulldozer or backhoe by himself, he would have workers boost him into the seat so he could indulge his passion of working with heavy equipment.
“He practically had to drag himself around, but he would go,” Wayman said.
The can-do attitude was tested even more three years ago when Lynn received a diagnosis of lung cancer. Doctors initially gave him two years to live, Synthia said.
What followed was the removal of part of his lung, four months of chemotherapy and 30 radiation treatments. In the end, though, Lynn beat the doctors’ forecast. An examination this past Thanksgiving found the cancer to be in remission.
That was great news, Jaime Bacuiska said. It meant his father was looking forward to the future and talking about possibly renovating the deer shop and a barn on his property.
But the future ended a month later.
Lynn and Synthia were on their way back from Tioga Downs after playing the slot machines —a favorite pastime they indulged three or four times a year — when an allegedly drunk driver plowed into the rear of their vehicle on I-88 in the Town of Colesville. Lynn was declared dead at the scene.
The day after the Dec. 28 crash his family made a wooden cross and put it up on the side of the highway where Lynn was killed. His seven grandchildren wrote condolences on the cross, and family members — in a fitting remembrance — mounted deer horns, a trap, a bullet casing and barbed wire to symbolize the centerpieces of Lynn’s life.
Community service and kindness
Lynn’s positive attitude and humor were on display even in his obituary. After listing survivors and accomplishments the family made sure to include the phrase that one of his passions in life was “harassing his wife.”
The couple engaged in ongoing humorous bickering throughout their nearly five decades of marriage. “He would call me Dr. Mom for diagnosing his ailments,” Synthia said, with a chuckle.
His children and grandchildren were always the most important thing in Lynn’s life, family members said. He would take great pride in their accomplishments.
Lynn also gave back to the community by sitting on the board of the Afton Fair and working as superintendent of the North Afton Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was working to keep the financially struggling cemetery open and cared for, Wayman said.
But, much of what Lynn did for others he did quietly, with little notice, those who knew him said.
For instance, for years he quietly supported the North Afton Methodist Church by doing work on the church, including installing a rubber roof and cross, without asking for any pay to speak of or taking glory for doing it, Wayman said.
On two occasions he opened the family’s home to two local teenagers who were temporarily homeless and needed a place to live. He was “like a second father” to another local teenager whose own dad had passed away, Jamie Bacuiska said. He helped the teen get a driver’s license and job and stayed in contact.
Acts such as these are what friends and family remember best.
His father was “a hustler,” in the best sense of the word, in that he was always busy, always working hard and never intimidated by anything, Lynn Jr. said.
As his lifelong friend Joe Leonard put it: Lynn never gave up.
Lynn is survived by his wife of 47 years, Synthia Baciuska; three sons and daughters-in-law, Lynn M. and Dawn Baciuska Jr., North Afton, Jamie and Stacie Baciuska, North Afton, Cody and Kristin Baciuska, Cobbleskill; seven grandchildren; two sisters and brothers-in-law, Gloria and Curtis Harvey, Afton, and Jeanetta and Gordon Feinstein, Endicott; mother-in-law, Winona Underwood, Rochester, and the rest of the Shaw family, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews.
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