Barbara Lynn Borsch Service Information

Barbara Lynn Borsch, of Yardley, PA, passed away in the early morning on October 12, 2024, surrounded by her three children. She was 62 years old.

Barbara was born on January 26, 1962, in Topeka, Kansas to her parents, Dolores Brunelle, a nurse, and her father, the late Roman Borsch, a doctor. She was the second child after her sister, Anne, and was followed by her sister Linda and her brother Mike.

Her mother grew up on a farm in the French-Canadian village of Lafontaine, Ontario and her father was born in Brooklin, Ontario to Ukrainian immigrants. Born in Kansas to Canadian parents, she harbored a lifelong love of The Wizard of Oz, and the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

After spending the first few years of her life in Kansas, the family moved back to Toronto. She worked in early childhood education throughout her teens and graduated from North Toronto Collegiate high school.

She started university at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, studying commerce. After her first year, she switched out of commerce because she didn’t like that people were represented as economic units. She soon began to study arts, where she enjoyed film studies and performing in theater productions on campus.

After two and a half years at Queen’s, she transferred to McGill University in Montreal and got her degree in philosophy, writing her thesis on the pursuit of happiness. She graduated with two bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and history.

After graduating, she moved back to Toronto and worked a variety of jobs, including a bookstore where she was once fired for wearing too many bright colors.

In 1989, after working on the CBC television program, Man Alive, she was accepted to the graduate school of journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After a week of editing business cards and watching the marching band walk through the cornfields, she was offered and instantly accepted an opening at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City. She wrote her master’s thesis on healthcare clinics in New York City, sitting in waiting rooms for hours to document the struggle of so many people to access basic healthcare.

Also a French-speaker and skilled musician, she recorded recaps of hockey games in French for Canadian radio and was offered a position to play cello in the NYU orchestra. One of her favorite pieces for the cello was Carmina Burana.

After graduating with her master’s in journalism in 1990, she worked as an associate editor for two medical magazines before landing a job as a marketing consultant at MTV.

Then, she worked as the Director of Nickelodeon Online Programming, and Managing Producer for Nick at Nite Online, helping to create some of Nickelodeon’s first online content for kids. In the late 90s she transferred to MaMaMedia, an educational consulting firm, as Executive VP of Content Development, developing online games for kids.

In March 1998, Barbara married James Francis Bopp Carty at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York.

On January 26, 1999, her 37th birthday, her daughter, Hannah Brunelle Carty was born at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital. Two years later, on May 2, 2001, Nicholas Francis Carty was born at NYU Langone.

In 2003, she moved to Yardley with her family. Barbara loved Yardley. She loved talking to everyone in the town and hanging out at her local pool, Brookside Swim and Tennis Club.

On February 18, 2004, Wesley Harold Carty was born at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Philadelphia.

Barbara always said how much joy having children brought her, and she filled her children’s lives with fun, excitement and music. She championed every interest her children had, especially dance, singing, and theater.

At the age of 48, she was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. While she lived exuberantly for many years, she struggled immensely with the disease in her last few years of life.

Barbara made friends wherever she went and had a close community of friends in Yardley who supported her. She spoke to everyone she interacted with like a close friend, and loved to get every detail of people’s life stories.

Barbara was a writer, a musician, and a creative. She loved celebrations, cake, birthdays, playing cello, musicals, true crime, sunflowers, adventures, meeting new people, hanging out with her kids, getting coffee, taking pictures, and enjoying life.

She is survived by her children, Hannah, Nicholas, and Wesley Carty, and her siblings Anne Grifo, Linda Borsch, and Mike Borsch.

Family, friends, and anyone who felt touched by her life are warmly invited to visit on Saturday, October 26 from 11am to 1pm at the Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home, 800 Newtown-Richboro Road, Richboro, PA. A memorial service will follow at 1pm. Interment will be held private to the family. In lieu of flowers the family is requesting donations be made in Barbara’s name to the Parkinson’s Foundation or a charity of their choice.

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