Carol Diane (Craig) Skaar
August 11, 1956 - April 01, 2012
Fly With the Angels, Sweetheart.
When I volunteered to write Carol's obituary, I had no idea it would be so difficult. How do I sum up a life of 55 years in a few paragraphs? Do I tell of her courage as a 15 month old baby who fought to walk and talk after a seizure and stroke rendered her left side paralyzed? How, perhaps, that fortitude gave her the incredible strength and courage to fight the cancer she would not name that took her life?
Carol had the heart of a caregiver. Even though she struggled emotionally and physically until the brain surgery that changed her life in 2003, she almost always had a smile for someone in need. She did whatever it took to help support her family, which included working in nursing homes as an aide and housekeeping at the apartment building where she lived. In recent years, she was an employee of Homewatch Caregivers as a Registered Nurses Assistant. Her in home clients have been missing her kind spirit and capable hands since November, when illness forced her to give up the job she loved.
Carol is survived by her children, Michael (Joelle) Skaar of Ellensburg; Amy Skaar and grandson, Avan, of Indiana; mother, Grace Craig, Everett; sisters, Susan Craig Scovel (Richard) of Redmond; Joanne Craig, Seattle; brother, John Craig (Cindy) of Granite Falls; nephews, Robert Leach, Craig Leach, Ryan Ankarberg, Riley Craig; niece, Whitney Craig and numerous great nephews and nieces. Her devoted partner and caregiver, Robert Brodt, otherwise known and loved as Roby, selflessly cared for his "little darlin" after her diagnosis on December 4th. He rarely left her side, other than when a family member would provide a couple of hours respite now and then so he could attend to business and shopping. The family will be forever grateful to him for care equal to or better than a registered nurse. May he be richly blessed for his servant heart.
Those preceding her in death are her grandparents and father, Howard Craig, of Everett.
We wish to thank SCCA for their compassionate care and providing Carol with dignity and quality of life for the few months after her devastating diagnosis. Even though Carol did not accept her disease and fought with more strength and courage than most could muster; the family would like to thank Hospice of Providence for their loving care and support; even when it meant "hands off."
Her family will forever miss her "Craig" smile, the laughing cackle she shared with her mother and sister, and her indomitable spirit. Fly with the angels, sweetheart.
FUNERAL INFORMATION
Carol loved the ocean and her grandmother, Nana. According to her wishes, her ashes will be privately scattered over the waters at Ocean Shores and inurned at Floral Hills in the family plot, next to her beloved Nana's grave site. Graveside Inurnment will be 2 PM Friday, June 1st, at Floral Hills Cemetery, Rhododendren Garden, 409 Filbert Rd. Lynnwood, Wa. 98036. (Click the link below for a map to this location).
DONATIONS
In lieu of flowers, donations to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Pancreatic Cancer Research.
Memorial
A Parable of Immortality
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she hangs
like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
"There she goes!"
Gone where?
Gone from my sight . . . that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment
when someone at my side says,
"There she goes!"
there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .
"Here she comes!"
Henry Van Dyke