Bryna McFarland

Bryna Marie McFarland, 36, a tutor in the grammar school of St. Mary’s Academy, died the night of March 5-6 at her parents’ home in St. Marys.

Miss McFarland’s death was the result of an episode of epilepsy, from which she suffered since childhood. In recent years she had participated in a program at the Medical School of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, treating epilepsy with Ketogenic diet techniques. She learned a good deal about the Keto diet, and before her death had not had a seizure in over two years.

Despite her illness, Miss McFarland was very active. She took lessons in singing, swimming, and horseback riding, and was on her high school’s swimming team.

Miss McFarland studied languages in the U.S. and abroad and was fluent in French. She earned degrees in French and linguistics from University of Maryland Baltimore County, and moved to St. Marys in 2017.

She was also active in online genealogy and collected substantial information on her family’s history in Ireland, England and the U.S.

Miss McFarland is survived by her parents, John and Ann McFarland, her sister Therese, who teaches in the girls’ school of the Academy, her brother Father John Mark McFarland of Phoenix, Arizona, and her brother Luke McFarland and his wife Susie of St. Charles, Illinois.

A solemn funeral Mass was offered by Father McFarland on March 12 at the St. Mary’s Academy and College auditorium, followed by burial in Our Lady of Peace Cemetery on the grounds of the Academy and College.

The family asks that donations in her memory be made to St. Mary’s Academy