Wednesday, October 5, 2022
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Caroline was truly one of the most thoughtful, compassionate people I knew. She wanted to make sure everyone around her was happy and taken care of. She loved to cook for her friends (and she was great at it). She was definitely the "mom" of our friend group in Kansas, the one who always made sure you had a jacket. She was the kind of friend you could run errands with or just hang out doing nothing with--the kind who was part of my day-to-day life.
Years before she had Oliver, she wanted more than anything to be a mom. Whenever we would see a baby, she would make a sound that I can only describe as something like a squeal combined with a Chewbacca grunt. Her eyes would go wide. It was like she couldn't handle the cuteness. She would talk all the time about how much she wanted a baby, what she would name her baby, what her top 5 (or 10 or 20 names were) and how they compared to everyone else's favorite names. There was a lot of pressure when Oliver was born for his name to live up to the Baby Name Expert reputation she'd curated, and she didn't disappoint. With Oliver and Audrie, it was like she had found the life she'd always wanted. It was beautiful to see.
She never 100% adapted to living in the Midwest. She was fascinated by our weird politeness customs and didn't love most of the food (after travelling with her to Charleston, I can't say I blame her). She missed her family like crazy. I once caught her trying to scrape the ice of the windshield of her old pickup with a credit card before I gave her one of my spare ice scrapers. She also kept an old parking ticket in that truck so she could park anywhere she wanted downtown--she would just stick the old ticket under her windshield wiper so she wouldn't get another. Worked every time.
She was a brilliant scholar and excellent teacher. She genuinely cared about her students and did everything they could to help them succeed, and it bothered her when they struggled. One time a student gave a presentation on how we should all be eating bugs for sustainable protein and he brought roasted crickets for the class and she ate one because she didn't want to offend him. She was so smart, but grounded in a refreshing way. One of her favorite games was to make up the most ridiculous possible fields of study by putting together academic buzzwords (like "critical" or "ontology"). I was never very good at it.
I could go on, but I'll end it here. I miss Caroline terribly, and I know it's nothing compared to what her family is feeling. Sending all the love and light.
