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Sitting here on the front porch, on a Sunday, searching for words good andtrue enough to honor Carolyn – our beloved aunt and your mother, your wife, your sister, your twin, your friend – takes us back to all those other Sundays when wewould gather together to enjoy each other’s company, good food, and, always,laughter that carried us though another week.Unlike most of us, Carolyn arrived in this world in the company of a friend.She shared nine months in her mother’s womb with her twin, Carmen, who liked to joke that she was pushed out first by a sister who was looking to claim the lifetime privilege of calling herself younger. These two little girls brought joy into theworld from the first – and not just to their parents. As their older sister, Jean,recalls, the man who delivered them skipped around the halls, delighted at thedelivery of his very first set of twins. I think that most would agree that Carolynand Carmen were the yin and yang of sisters. They were as different as could be but, somehow, these two very distinct women complemented each other. Theywere two halves of a whole.Sifting through the pictures of a life, the first shots of two chubby little babies squinting into the camera give way to snapshots of their own years as youngmothers. Carmen summed it up best: “We were two mothers with four kids.”Carolyn’s pride and delight in her children, Bill and Babe, shines through theseimages; her youth and energy are dazzling. The mother who swung across the yard

on a tire swing wasn’t much more than a kid herself. Her sense of fun andadventure was captivating.It was that same sense of adventure that later led this West Virginia-born girlon a London flight aboard the Concorde, to her ancestral country of Spain, and toextended visits to Belize with her husband Bill. It seems fitting that Carolyn spenther professional life as a customer service manager for U.S. Air at Tri-StateAirport, spending her workdays in a hub of movement and assisting passengers intheir comings and goings.Although, in some ways, Carolyn was the embodiment of sense, she alsohad an abiding appreciation for life’s mysteries and beauty, especially that of thenatural world. She loved the deer who would sometimes wander into her yard andshe seemed to know everything there is to know about roses and other flowers.Hummingbirds were especially dear to her heart. Perhaps she recognized in them ashared restlessness and beautiful fragility. From now on, whenever we are luckyenough to glimpse one of these tiny, fluttering creatures, we will think of her.If we pay attention, we can already see Carolyn’s love and protection aroundus in the form of those creatures she loved. A day after their mother passed away,Babe and Bill came upon a deer with her two fawns in Carolyn’s backyard. And, as

this tribute was being written, a hummingbird appeared suddenly, hovering first onone side of the chair, then the other before darting off into the summer twilight.She also had a fascination with angels, those heavenly messengers and protectors. Maybe it was that idea of that idea of invisible protectiveness that rangso true for Carolyn. She herself was a great protector of those she loved. For yearsafter Jennifer made a miserable failure of a coconut cake from a recipe in a MarthaStewart cookbook, Carolyn swore with outrage that Martha should taken down for leading her astray with such a rotten recipe. This fierce loyalty extended to her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, who she will no doubt continue to cheer on fromheaven.Hummingbirds and angels aside, Carolyn was of the earth with a salty witthat could pierce through any kind of nonsense or pretense with the force of alightning bolt. Even as her health declined, she never lost her priceless sense of humor. She loved nothing better than making fun of her twin sister, rolling her eyesand arching her brows as only she could do.During a 1995 trip through the urban and ghetto sprawl of NorthPhiladelphia, she made it clear she was ready to confront anyone who approachedthe wayward moving caravan she occupied. “I just dare them – I just dare them,”she said, tapping her trusty cane against her leg.

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Aunt Carolyn's Eulogy

This is a eulogy written for our beloved Aunt Carolyn (Carolyn Evans -- July 23, 1942 - July 31, 2009). It was written by her niece Jennifer Fossell O'Sullivan and her nephew Er... (More)

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Category:	Creative Writing
Rating:	(2 Ratings)
Upload Date:	08/05/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	evans kentucky Huntington Eulogy carolyn Ashland west virginia us airways evans kentucky Huntington Eulogy carolyn Ashland west virginia us airways (fewer)