Nanny Carol Leaves the Frame...

Carol Anne, beloved matriarch of the Forster clan, passed away at age 73.  Her life was a journey:  where to start? Carol's childhood was shaped by the tragedy of an alcoholic father who abandoned his wife and children, and a despotic grandfather who sent one of Carol's sisters away to be raised by others.  This sister later committed suicide as a young woman.  Carol married a tragically brilliant adventurer, lived in remote areas from Newfoundland in the east to the Queen Charlotte Islands in the west.  When her fourth child was still a toddler and her eldest was eleven, her husband took his own life in those remote woods, echoing the action his father had taken in the home the young family shared with him some years earlier.  Carol returned to Ottawa with the children, where she faced  challenges financially and otherwise, chronic health issues and weight problems; she fell in love with a younger man who broke her heart; went back to school to become a social worker and worked in her field until she had to go on disability; she struggled to feel worthy of her own family.  All four of her children attended university, at Queen's in Kingston.  In later years, remarried, she supported her youngest son through mental illness.  Carol was always:  ready with a smile, a wink, a story, and a laugh; beautifully dressed and impeccably groomed; a friend to all she met; ready to give beyond her means; a wonderful grandmother six times over; a devout believer in the benevolence of God and humanity.  Lived life to the fullest, generous to a fault, larger than life, talked your ear off: these well-wrought sayings go some way towards Carol, but words could never do her justice.  Now, we can't believe she's gone.