Lynn's Thoughts

When I visited Lowell and Carol shortly after they married, I didn’t know exactly what to think of Carol other than she’s certainly different than anyone I’ve ever met. Now, thirty-eight years later, I have contemplated Carol and on some of the traits that made her such a special person from my perspective.

Her unique and spontaneous laugh seized your attention and was a testimony to her love of life. Descriptive words such as vibrant, energetic, enthusiastic, gentle, sweet, and caring came to mind and captured a few of Carols’ numerous desirable traits.

However for myself, it was Carol’s curiosity, keen interest in people, unpretentiousness and openness, frankness, and her bold and direct expression of opinions and searching questions (often posed to complete strangers) that defined her as the genuine person that she was.

I thought that for gender equality, the masculine words “frank” and “frankness” should have “carol” and “carolness” as their feminine equivalents. Carol was who she was, and she didn’t pretend to be anything other than who she was. I have considerable admiration and respect for that.

I can still hear Carol’s “Well, that’s interesting.” or “Well! That’s interesting!” ringing in my ears. Although Carol was a very intelligent and multi-talented woman, I sometimes considered Carol to be wide-eyed, childlike, and even naïve but in a way that one might envy since growing cynicism often causes our own curiosity, enthusiasm and zeal to wane as we age.

All us who have known and loved Carol will miss her greatly; yet, we can all look back fondly and smile as we picture her beautiful unfettered life.