Obituary of Carol Roberts

Carol Dianne Roberts passed away at University Of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta on Monday, August 30, 2021 at the age of 47 years.

Carol is survived by: her loving partner, Gordon Spenrath; sons, Alex Roberts and Max Roberts; beloved pup, Charlie; mother, Helen Ryan (Clay Day); three siblings, Andre Roberts & family, Alan Roberts & family and Debbie Roberts & family; brother-in-law, Basil Inder; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Carol was predeceased by: her father, Mervin Roberts; and grandparents. 

A private Memorial Service for Carol will be held on Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 11:00 AM. You may view the live streaming of the service which will be posted on the McCaw Funeral Service website under Carol's obituary at the time of the service.

An informal Celebration of Life reception will be conducted from Lloydminster Village Club House, (#1, 5308-57 Street, Lloydminster, AB) on Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 2:00 PM. 

Donations in memory of Carol may be made to LPSD - Queen Elizabeth School Breakfast Program.

Carol's memorial card can be viewed or downloaded from the link below.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/ea04e566-1dc4-4ef2-9563-a7b4cace1cdc

Eulogy:

“Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.”

• Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you begin to eulogize someone you loved, so much, for so long? This is like a love letter from all of us to you, our girl…

“So good, So good, So good. Sweet Caroline!!!!” Of course, our girl, Carol Roberts, was never actually named Caroline, … but she was pretty certain that Neil Diamond wrote that song for her! In fact, I had the privilege of attending one of his concerts with her and seeing the pure joy on her beautiful face and the brilliant smile we all loved on her face when he sang it, of course, directly to her! :) Music was such a huge part of her life that it seems fitting to start our final goodbye to her in song, which she so cherished! And the quote above references both her love of song and of rain, something those who know her always noted. In fact, for me, she was never even Carol. But simply, “Sweetheart,” most of the time, or an occasional, “Honey,” thrown in, except when I was being beyond serious with her about something, or when she knew I was angered in some way when, “Carol,” would slip out. Any other use of, “Carol,” was strictly prohibited as our relationship grew, and if rendered, would result in a swivel of her head, her incredulous look bespeaking my mistake!! I also once made the mistake of telling my buddy that despite promising to take Sweetheart to garage sales the next day, I could probably swing some golf with him instead. I said in our gathering on a friend’s deck, “Muffin, are we still planning on garage sales tomorrow?” She saw right through the Muffin nonsense and called me on it, only to be called Muffin forever more by those in attendance! She even said back in Lloyd, that people she was not even sure who they were, were calling her Muffin in Superstore! She never did live that down…and of course, nor did I! But she was so much more than Carol to all of us. She was most of all, daughter to Helen, sister to Debbie, Andre, Alan, and Basil, but most of all, Mom to Allie, Kenz and, Charlie.  Born December, 11 1973 in Grandfalls, Newfoundland to Mervin Roberts and Helen Ryan, she was a much loved baby girl who would find her home in Robert’s Arm, Newfoundland. However, she really was a girl of Canada, having travelled across the entire country coast to coast, and living in many places from one end of the country to the other supporting her family and seeking an opportunity for a better life with her family. However, her heart, like so many proud Newfoundlanders before and after her, has never left home. And thus, our girl will return to The Rock she loved so much when we return her home next summer! A friend asked me what the things were on her bucket list in terms of things she wanted. Given her simple tastes and disregard to material things, I honestly could think of only two things… to go back to Newfoundland to live again, and at the top of her list, would have been to make sure her boys were always looked after, and okay.

Boys your mom loved you through and through as much as a mom could; at times, maybe even more than a mom should! :) She was on her own since the beginning with you guys, and God only knows how she managed as a single mom of twins, but with the loving help of family, she was always able to provide for you guys and made sure there was always a roof over your heads, clothing on your bodies, and food on the table. This was her only priority…her boys!! She would be out of food and needed a few things at times during this, and a quick glance into her freezers and her pantry would illustrate completely what her priorities were, they would be absolutely stuffed with food, despite needing groceries??? I can attest to that in our home, as we always had too much of everything in our pantry and freezers! With recent Covid shipping issues, China Lily soy sauce was a bit hard to come by for a month or so…I am now proud to say that as of my count yesterday, we are now down to 7 bottles left, … in case anyone needs to borrow some! And that kind of incapsulates who your mom really was and is. She made sure that you would be well looked after no matter what. She loved you that much and wanted to provide you this security of never going without the essentials. She wanted to be sure you would be looked after always! And as I have shared with both of you this past hard week, because I too love you guys, and to honour your mom and her wishes, our home is forever open to you guys no matter what, when you need a home, safety, security, or anything. I stand before you today and pledge that, and promise that you will never walk alone, that is my solemn promise to both of you, no matter what. And your mom would need me to do that, so that is a promise for sure and forever! In short, she loved you like no other! I may as well make it public at this time that she was in the middle of an affair outside of our relationship, … one that I encouraged even. :) She had a love affair going with a handsome young fellow named Charlie, about ten years her junior, in dog years, whom she was just crazy about too. He loved her like no other, and she loved him as complete soul mates as she called him. He too is grieving and waits for his mommy to come home and through the door. He too will be looked after once I learn to spoil him like Mom!

However, our special girl had enough love to go around to everyone. Deb, Alan, Basil and Andre, she loved you beyond imagination. She laughed at so much you guys said, and was always recalling happy memories, both from the past and present, whenever she spoke of you guys! Andre says that when the day comes Sweetheart, he will run to you! Alan wants you to know he will love you with all of his heart until the day you meet again! Debbie, you know she loved you so much that she would drop everything in her life, fly and drive across the country through a terrible storm, just to be by your side when you were very ill! She loved you guys to bits. And Helen and Clay, she loved you guys with all of her heart. She kept saying right up to the end Clay, that she just knew you would make a full recovery and her constant prayer reflected this! Nan, she loved you! You had a special bond with her that I can not even put into words, so I will not discredit that by even trying to do so. You were the best mom she could have ever asked for and I have seen time and time again why. You have been such a rock through all of this ordeal, and I can not thank you enough for all of your love and guiding support through all of this. I love you guys too, and feel so honoured and proud to be able to say I am part of Sweetheart’s family as well.

Finally, Carol’s friends, near and far, old ones and newer ones, staff members, students, and colleagues, she loved you all! Many story I have heard about Ms. Fantastic from Queen E, as she would proudly tell me, and she was so much more than just a caretaker of her school. She was a caretaker of the hearts of some of your most difficult kids, and took them under her wing to offer them nurturing support and love that some of them so needed, sometimes even to the point of being asked to tone it down a bit so the kid would not get too reliant on it. To that, you should know today, she said, “F” it, well “F he!” as she would say.  He was getting that love and support no matter what, and I saw them in her home, even if that was frowned upon, had they known. She also took that generosity of heart to the street, often feeding a hot meal to the homeless. One of my favorite memories of her was watching her slipping a $50 bill to a legless war veteran in New York City when we were there. Our girl had some anxiety issues and hated being introduced into groups on first meeting, or new people. You would probably have never known it because of her easy and radiant smile. But if you took the time to slowly invest in her, and us, she let you in, and that would be a forever buy in! That smile lit up a room and that is not exaggerating it! Everyone has a hook that draws people in, and I think that was one of her best ones, her smile. And no matter what, I was blessed always to be able to draw that out of her. All I had to say to her was to tell her to hide her smile, and she couldn’t! … Ever! Add in her absolute zany sense of humour and dry wit, and she had us all… hook, line, and sinker. And that, may have been all she ever kept, her love of people in her circle. It never waivered. … Unlike everything else… Golf? I love it, can we stay out late on Sunday at the lake so we can maybe get another round in? Two years later, don’t bother getting me a membership, I don’t really like golf! Fishing? This is so much fun! That was some night we had with Dave last year and all those pickerel! We have to do that again! Hey don’t bother to get me a fishing license this year, I hate fishing. Steak, yeah that is my favourite! No, I don’t really like steak that much anymore…and on, and on it went! Love it today, hate it tomorrow.

But the list of people in her life never changed, it only grew! In fact, if you got down to it, as this funeral demonstrates, out of our respect for her, she was a minimalist at heart! … OK, our craft room at home, and the three bedrooms she took over with her stuff maybe contradicts this statement, but she really was about non-material things at heart. In the end, not counting Alan and Andre out in Newfoundland, who could not be here for her final journey, she had the most important things in her heart, and in her world, surrounding her with incredible love as we said goodbye one final time in that small ICU room. We are all so proud of you for your courage you showed us in your fight for life, right up until the very end. And we knew the love that we got back from her. That is the only thing in the world that mattered to her… the people she loved!

Our girl was ready to go with her God. She was always ready in fact! She was ready to go to God even from when I first met her. She always said it, even wished it. And this came from an incredible faith in God and vigorous spirituality that knew no bounds placed upon it by a formal religion or practice of faith. Instead, she had a personal and strong belief in Jesus, and our Almighty Father. She was well versed in the teachings of the bible, but believed too in the beliefs that other non-Christian faiths had in their higher powers. She saw it as the same God. She was a living testament to faith in God above and I gleaned much understanding about this strong faith in my own practice and belief in God. She truly is in a better place, and wishing for us to rejoice that fact, even in our despair and sadness today. She has indeed slipped the surly bonds of earth and reached out to touch the face of her God, as I spoke of when she passed from this world, on to the fields of glory where we will all be united in her and God’s love!

She was a gift to all of us…much too short of a gift for us to hold on to in our immediacy, but  some day, we will all be reunited with this precious gift that was Carol Dianne (with two N’s) :) Roberts. The lessons we learned together with her about the importance of saying, I love you, each day, no matter what… I always used to say to her, what would happen if something happened to one of us and we had not said it??? And I would be remiss in not pointing out how her ferocious battle for life, and to live, raised all of our levels of faith, and was probably the last gift she gave to so many who saw their own faith levels raised in united prayer for her well being!

We will ALWAYS hold her in our heart and in our memories. We love you, and we will see you in all that we do, in kind moments, in generosity of heart, and in faith in God. “Mom upstairs!” to those of you who understand this. “So good, so good, so good!”…

“Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.”

-Dr. Seuss