A Tribute to a Dear Friend

On Saturday evening, after attending my high school reunion, I received a phone call with very sad news.  Carol, a former teaching colleague and a beloved friend, had passed away that morning.

I have known Carol for more than fifty years.  When I began my teaching career Carol was the French teacher, and she also taught an occasional Spanish class.  Eventually she became the chairperson of the foreign language department  Our ties of friendship grew even stronger when, later in life, she married another member of the faculty, a colleague who was my best friend and like an older brother to me.  So Carol was very much family to me.

Her husband, Gary, passed away fourteen years ago.  it was a great loss for her and the many people who loved him.  But Carol was a strong and independent woman who continued to live by herself in the house that they had bought.  In spite of her strength, she was a soft-spoken woman who never had a bad word for anyone.  Behind that mild demeanor, however, there was also a very quick and sharp wit.

Carol was an extremely intelligent and talented woman.  She was a prodigious reader (we often traded books that we had read), and she kept her language skills keen by reading magazines and novels in French and Spanish.  She loved to paint and took classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  She also loved classical music and had season tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra.

She kept very active, working each summer on her flower beds.  She and Gary used to take trips out West where they would hike in the mountains.  Right up to the end she would take walks in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park which was close to her house.

You might recall that last spring I painted a picture that I was going to give her.  (You can read that post HERE.)  I took it with me on our previous trip to Ohio in June.  However, I did not have a chance to give it to her.  I think that her health was already declining because she said she was not up for a visit from us. Later, in July, I repeatedly tried to call her to wish her a happy birthday, but there was no answer.  I finally called her stepson.  He told me that he had to take her to the hospital, and from there she went to a nursing home. I hoped that on this trip we could visit her there.  I was going to call her stepson on Sunday to see if we could schedule a visit... but on Saturday I received the call from him that she had passed away.

The last conversation that I had with her on the phone, I said, "I'm just checking up on you.  After all, you are my surrogate sister."

She laughed and said, "OK, bro."