My Mom

Our hands, February 9, 2008

On Valentine's Day, my mom was granted her peace at last, after the long, hard road she walked with Alzheimer's (though the diagnosis while she lived was Lewy Body Dementia). I had the great, exhausting blessing of being able to be with her a lot during these last weeks and days. I'm sick with a terrible cold, and I'm a bit numb emotionally. The years of dementia were intense, these weeks of her dying even moreso.

I know she's free and at peace. And I think I am at peace, too.
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I'm editing this on 2/24/2008 to add the obituary I was finally able to write and put in the paper today (and editing again to reflect the post-mortem findings of Alzheimer's):
George-Anna Harbeson Carter, formerly of Coral Gables, Florida and Sylva, North Carolina, passed away on Valentines’ Day, 2008 after walking the treacherous path of Alzheimer's dementia.

George-Anna was a free spirit, a kind and generous friend, a devoted and loving mother and wife. Married for 37 years to John Channing Carter, Jr. (Chan), she raised three children: Suzanne Carter of Terre Haute, Indiana, Michael Carter of Orlando, Florida and George-Anna Lovett of Sylva, North Carolina. Her grandchildren are Ian and Shaun Hussey, their wives Lisa and Deann, Molly and Patrick Burkett, Eli Boston and Justin, Michael and Channing Lovett. Her great-grandchildren are Sophia Hussey and Raven Renn. Her husband and grandson Patrick preceded her in death.

Born in 1923 in Louisville Kentucky to Suzanne Danforth Peaslee Harbeson and George T. Harbeson, George-Anna spent her childhood between her father’s flower farm in College Hill, Ohio and a home in Coral Gables, Florida.

From her adored father, she inherited a love of nature and of writing. She began publishing her work as a child, in local newspapers and in booklets she and her father printed on a small press in their garage. Later, her numerous publications included poems, personal essays and photographs in the Christian Science Monitor, Good Housekeeping and Reader’s Digest.

Writing was her lifelong passion and when we were grown, she began to teach creative writing in continuing education courses at Miami-Dade Community College, Florida International University and the University of Miami.

She summered each year in North Carolina and started the creative writing group at the Golden Age Club in Sylva, a group that is celebrating its 2oth anniversary this year. She found enormous personal satisfaction in helping others find their writing talents and numerous people became published authors through her encouragement.

She loved to travel and meet new people. She was full of stories and told them in enchanting descriptive detail. Cheerful and bustling, she was unfailingly generous with her time, resources, and, above all, a love which was supportive and unconditional. Her childlike faith in the goodness and beauty of the world was inspirational.

Her unconventional soul was both the bane and delight of our existence. She took us shelling at midnight low tide, broke into public singing, made s’mores over candles and let us read while eating. She knew the names of plants and the calls of birds and from her we learned the ineffable joy of clouds and sky, and saw poetry in tiny flowers most people overlook.

Once someone asked each of us who we thought was Mom’s favorite child. And each of answered, “Me!!!”

She was a wonderful long-distance grandma and her Christmas in July packages were remarkable for their abundance of odd gifts and for the enormous amount of duct tape wrapping.

The best way to honor George-Anna would be to tell someone you love them, hug a friend, smile at a stranger, dance with daffodils.

We have missed you for a long time, Mom, and we believe you finally have the abiding peace you so richly deserve. Love, love, love, Susie, Mike and Georgie