Damarice CAROLYN Mick (née Heath) was born on April 16^th, 1935 in a shack (by her own description!) on an oil lease in Texas somewhere between Arp and Wright City, to Damarice Schuler ‘HANSIE’ (née Hagelstein) and Howard AROL Heath. After nearly 88 stubbornly-lived years full of creative projects, much gardening, plenty of Bridge and Scrabble, increasingly complex quilt-making, voracious reading (the speed of which frightened many a librarian), and fierce survival beyond most odds, Carolyn died at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, Alberta on April 1^st, 2023. She is predeceased by cherished youngest daughter Heather (1967-1992), older sister Arol ANNE (1933-2001), dedicated husband Robert LORNE (1933-2018), and beloved youngest son Casey (1968-2021). Carolyn is survived by her eldest children Bob and Janeal, and granddaughter Erin.

For a lady born in a shack in nowhere-particular Texas, Carolyn and her family lived as largely as they could. In Carolyn’s childhood, they moved as a unit around the southern United States while her father and grandfather (‘Gan Gan’) chased oil. In her recently-kept journal, Carolyn writes: “Obviously they never hit anything.” Much to her chagrin, evidently! This particular pursuit didn’t last into the ‘50s. In 1952, the family moved to California (Yuba City) where the girls finished out high school, after which Carolyn pursued courses in stenography and secretarial notation at Yuba City College. By the end of the schoolyear in 1954, Carolyn’s parents had left the States and transferred to Edmonton, where she and her sister Anne joined them that summer. They all lived together in a house on a corner lot on 10^th Ave. in the south end of the city, right across from another house on another corner lot, where a handsome man about Carolyn’s age was also living with his parents. His name was Lorne, and she married him two years later.

Together, Carolyn and Lorne moved about the prairies for the first few years of their marriage while they each found their way in the world. By the end of 1968, Carolyn, Lorne, and their four children had settled in Calgary, where they lived for a decade before buying a property outside Innisfail and going into hog farming. As a family, the Micks traveled as frequently as they could manage, and for the rest of her life, Carolyn steadfastly worked to keep in touch with the overseas friends (some of whom are now practically family) they’d made during these travels. Whilst on the farm, Carolyn and Lorne also made a habit of giving work, a solid roof, and hearty food (delicious, well-spiced, and often straight from Carolyn’s southern heritage) to a whole cast of wayward characters as they passed through. These friends, too, often remained connected to the family for years or decades through Carolyn’s initiative.

While Lorne dabbled in a few different careers, Carolyn built her own life full of frenetic activity, side hustles, and heavy community involvement. Her time was frequently filled with extensive volunteer work on various boards including but not limited to: The Innisfail Historical Society, the Board of the Innisfail Public Library, the Citizens Advisory Committee to Federal Prisons (mostly working with the Bowden Institute), the Health Facilities Advisory Committee, the High School Band Parents Association and, we’re sure, many others we’re doing her the disservice of forgetting. In the 1960s, Carolyn joined a local sorority and sang in their band “Just Us” as it toured central and southern Alberta giving concerts at all sorts of events and venues. It was through this sorority that she became close with several women who all eventually formed “Growth Group” – a small, tightly-knit collective of friends who have, for nearly sixty years, traveled together, planned activities both near and far together, supported each other through all of life’s peaks and valleys, and ultimately, comprised a massive part of Carolyn’s adult life.

The last several years of Carolyn’s life were extremely difficult, in more ways than one, and they weren’t her first encounter with difficulty either. It takes a person of immense character and determination (and sheer brute stubbornness) to live as long as Carolyn did under the conditions that she did. Ultimately, her final months were lived peacefully, in a charming bungalow in Lethbridge with her eldest daughter Janeal, watching TV too loudly for anyone else to stand, rewatching some favorite films, quilting, reading, and continuing to keep in touch with the many beloved friends who had passed through her sparkling sphere of influence across her nearly nine decades. As is always the case, we wanted more time. But we can only assume that somewhere, somehow, Carolyn now finds herself elbow deep in potting soil, next to her two youngest children, her sister, her parents, her husband, and some of her long-lost friends, smiling her big glittery smile, catching them all up on everything she saw along the way.

A Celebration of Life will be held for Carolyn at CORNERSTONE FUNERAL HOME, 2825 – 32 Street South, Lethbridge, AB, on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 11:00 AM. Flowers, which were a passion of Carolyn’s, are gratefully accepted, but donations-in-lieu to STARS (stars.ca) are also welcomed.

 

 To send a condolence, please visit www.cornerstonefuneralhome.com

• Date : 2023-04-01
• Location : Lethbridge, Alberta