Carol Ann Carraway - Online Memorial Website

Carol's parents, James Brown Carraway and Mary Ann Larrimore, were married on March 3, 1943 in South Mills, North Carolina.

On October 23, 1943, Mary Ann gave birth to Carol's brother, James Henry Carraway.

Carol was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 27, 1945 to James Brown Carraway and Mary Ann (Larrimore) Carraway.  Carol's brother, James "Jimmy" Henry Carraway, was one-year-old.  Mary Ann, her parents, and her parents' family were originally from Tilghman Island, Maryland where they were born and raised.  When Carol was born, however, Mary Ann lived in the Fairfield community of Baltimore, Maryland with her grandmother (Carol's great-grandmother) Mary "Molly" Estelle Leonard, her mother's parents (Carol's maternal grandparents) Henry Clay Larrimore and Caroline Estelle (Leonard) Larrimore, and her siblings (Carol's maternal aunts and uncle), of which Mary Ann was the oldest, Henrietta "Toots" Larrimore, Clay "Bunk" Leonard Larrimore, and Rachel Ann Larrimore.

 

With the family still living in Fairfield and Carol an infant, Carol's father, James, went to North Carolina, where he was from, to find work.  Mary Ann worked in Baltimore while her sister, Henrietta, cared for Carol and her brother Jimmy.  During this time Mary Ann was sending money to James in North Carolina while he was "looking for work" until she discovered his infidelities.  That's when Mary Ann told James not to return, and she eventually divorced James.

 

In November of 1952, Mary Ann (Larrimore) Carraway became Mrs. Mary Ann Bell when she married Francis Lee Bell (or "Lee", as everyone called him).  Mary Ann and Lee married when Carol was 7-years-old and the family began their new life together.

 

Lee had a son, Frankie, from a previous marriage, who lived in Ohio, where Lee was from.  Lee and his new family maintained a relationship with Frankie and to this day Frankie is still part of the family.

When Carol was 12-years-old, Lee and Mary Ann bought their first house on Heathwood Road in Glen Burnie, Maryland and moved in on January 27, 1957, which was Carol's birthday.  Mary Ann owned this house until her death in 1978.

When Carol was 18-years-old, she answered a knock at the door of the family's home on Heathwood Road.  On the other side was a man who's car had broken down and he needed their help.  The man introduced himself to the family as John Wolff and told them he was a preacher.  Carol's family invited him to join them for dinner. 

 

Carol Married John Henry Wolff, who was 31-years-old, on May 30, 1963 in Hagerstown, Maryland.  She left her home on Heathwood Road in Glen Burnie, Maryland to move to Hagerstown, Maryland, where John was from, and begin her new life with her new husband.

On May 31, 1964, Carol gave birth to her first child, Brenda Jean Wolff.

When Carol left Womens' Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, she brought her new baby to her Parents' house.  Lee Bell cherished his first grandchild, Brenda.

On May 1, 1965, only eleven months after the birth of her daughter, Carol gave birth to her second child, Victor Lee Wolff.

Jimmy's second wife, Joanne, gave birth to his first child, Mary Kay Carraway, on June 6, 1967.

Sadly, Lee Bell died on December 10, 1967, suddenly and unexpectedly from a heartattack.

On December 24, 1967, Carol met her biological father, James Brown Carraway, for the first time.  Her step-father, Lee Bell, had just died on December 10th.  Carol's daughter Brenda was 3-years-old, her son Victor was 2-years-old, and she was pregnant with her son Kenneth.  Carol and her mother, Mary Ann, both went to her Aunt Rachel's house to meet with her father.

 

On April 30, 1968, Carol gave birth to her third child, Kenneth Rae Wolff.

James Brown Carraway visited his daughter Carol again after her son Kenny was born.  Carol again received a surprise visit from her father in 1968, when Brenda was 4-years old and Victor was 3-years-old, after she and John had moved back to Hagerstown, Maryland.  James, who lived in Richmond, Virginia at the time, must have had Carol on his mind and inquired around until he found out where she lived.  After that visit, Carol never saw her father again.  She went to her grave thinking he had just decided to let go of her once again.  That wasn't the case, however. 

 

Carol's daughter Brenda had long been looking for Carol's father, James Brown Carraway, off and on while Carol was alive, thinking that it was possible he was still alive, since he would be in his eighties if he were.  Carol may even have other siblings somewhere.  It wasn't until after Carol died that Brenda discovered that James died on January 19, 1969. 

 

The reason Brenda wasn't able to discover this earlier was because James' last name had been entered into the birth registry misspelled as "Caroway" when he was born.  This is how his name was spelled on his death certificate also because of the birth registry entry.  So, Carol's father had died in a terrible car accident not long after his last visit with her and Carol never knew.

 

On January 19, 1969, Carol's father, James Brown Carraway, lost his life as a result of a brain injury, internal injuries, and multiple fractures due to a traffic accident.  He had been living in Richmond, Virginia at the time and was married to a woman named Dorothy.

Carol's maternal great-grandmother, Mary Estelle Leonard, died on September 25, 1971, outliving seven of her twelve children.  She is buried behind Tilghman United Methodist Church where she and her husband and children were faithful members.

In 1972 Mary Ann married Gene Howard and they remained married until Mary Ann's death on June 15, 1978.

Jimmy's third wife, Jean, gave birth to his second child, Ronald Jay Carraway, on June 6, 1972.

Carol's nephew, James David Carraway, was born on March 25, 1973.  Carol's brother Jimmy adopted young Jimmy in March 1985, after his marriage to Patricia.

Around the Fall of 1976, Carol left her husband John and the home they owned on Patrick Henry Drive in Brooklyn Park, Maryland.  Carol and her three children, Brenda, Victor, and Kenny, moved to an apartment in Glen Burnie on Pamela Road.  Carol and John divorced about a year later.

Carol lost her mother, Mary Ann, on June 15, 1978, as a result of a cardio pulmonary infarction with COPD as a contributing factor.  Mary Ann died at North Arundel Hospital in Glen Burnie, Maryland, at the age of 52.  Mary Ann had also previously been diagnosed with emphysema, resulting from years of smoking, and had already been treated previously for heart problems.

Mary Ann was buried on Tilghman Island, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where she was from.  She was buried next to her parents, Henry Clay and Caroline Estelle Larrimore, behind Tilghman United Methodist Church.

On December 11, 1981, Jimmy married his fifth wife, Patricia.  He had finally found his soulmate and was a happy husband and father.  Jimmy adopted Patricia's son, James David Carraway, in March 1985.

Carol's niece, Joanne Lynn Carraway, was born to Carol's brother Jimmy and his wife Patricia on August 31, 1982.

On September 29, 1983, Carol's first grandchild, Sarah, was born to her daughter Brenda.

Carol's second grandchild, Amanda, was born to her daughter Brenda on January 4, 1985.

Carol's brother, Jimmy, lost his battle with lung cancer on June 13, 1985 at the age of 41.  He left behind his wife Patricia, his son Jimmy and his daughter Joanne.  Jimmy was also survived by his oldest daughter, Mary Kay, who he hadn't seen since his separation from her mother, and his son, with his third wife Jean, Ronald ("Ron") Jay Carraway.  Jimmy is buried in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Carol's third grandchild, Kristian, was born on October 18, 1985.  Kristian was adopted by Carol's daughter Brenda and her husband Curtis on November 4, 1997.

Carol's fourth grandchild, Alexandra ("Alexa") was born on August 30, 1987.  Alexa was adopted by Carol's daughter Brenda and her husband Curtis on November 7, 1994, when she was 7-years-old.

Carol's fifth grandchild, Carys, was born on April 1, 1991.  Carys was adopted by Carol's daughter Brenda and her husband Curtis on November 4, 1997.

Sometime around Easter of 1991, Carol rededicated her life to the Lord!  She attended Abundant Life Church in Glen Burnie, Maryland, which was pastored by Reverend Dan Mucci.

 

Carol's rededication to the Lord came about when she was told she needed to have surgery on a blocked correded artery.  She had already had surgery on the corroded arteries on the other side of her neck years earlier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  That surgery collapsed while she was in recovery.  This time, the corroded artery that would be operated on was the only one that had any blood flow at all.  Carol's doctor called her two oldest children, Brenda and Victor, into his office to explain the seriousness of the situation.  They were told that their mother probably wouldn't make it through the surgery, and if she did, she would probably be in a vegetative state.  On the other hand, if she didn't have the surgery, she would most certainly die.  When they left the doctor's office, Brenda and Victor went to plan their mother's funeral, without mentioning it to Carol.

 

Carol was admitted to the hospital the next Monday evening in preparation for her surgery the next morning.  After Carol was admitted and settled into her hospital bed, her doctor came in and told her that he had just received news that his father passed away.  He didn't want to perform her surgery under those circumstances and asked her if it would be okay if he postponed her surgery for the following Tuesday.

 

Carol left the hospital the same night she entered it and went home.  She knew with all her heart that God was giving her another chance to come to Him.  That following Sunday Carol went to Abundant Life Church, where Brenda was attending at the time, and rededicated her life to Jesus.

 

Carol entered the operating room that following Tuesday with full confidence.  She came through the surgery with flying colors and was sent home withing a week to continue recovering.

 

Carol continued to seek God daily and learn more about Him from His Word and she continued attending Abundant Life Church.  She even taught a childrens' Sunday School class for awhile, until she was admitted into the hospital with pneumonia sometime later.

Carol's sixth grandchild, Victoria, was born to Carol's daughter Brenda and her husband Curtis on October 14, 1993.

On November 7, 1994 Carol's daughter Brenda and her husband Curtis adopted Alexandra ("Alexa"), who was born on August 30, 1987. Alexa was 7-years-old when she was adopted by Brenda and Curtis and is Carol's fourth grandchild.

Carol's granddaughter, Michelle, was born to her son Kenny and his wife Angie on June 15, 1995.  Kenny and Angie lived in Texas when Michelle was born.  This is a picture of Carol holding newborn Michelle on her visit to meet her new granddaughter.

On November 4, 1997 Carol's daughter Brenda and her husband Curtis adopted biological sisters Kristian and Carys.  Kristian, who was born on October 18, 1985, was 12-years-old at the time of her adoption, and Carys, who was born on April 1, 1991, was 6-years-old.

On July 7, 1998 Carol's only grandson, Jonathan, was born to her son Kenny and his wife Angie.

Hannah, Carol's youngest grandchild, was born to Kenny and Angie on July 22, 2000.

On August 27, 2004, Carol's oldest grandchild, Sarah, gave birth to Carol's first great-granchild, Ian William Kistler.

On March 11, 2006, Carol's second great-grandchild, Riley Cheyenne Kistler, was born to her oldest granddaughter, Sarah.

Our annual family Christmas celebration was held on Saturday, December 22, 2007.  For a time before this it was becoming the norm for Mom to sleep most of the day, waking only to sit up and eat or to take her medications.  She wasn't getting dressed much during the week at this point because she was laboring to breathe more and more with the smallest amount of exertion.  However, when I woke at 7:00 a.m. on the morning of December 22nd, Mom was already up, dressed, and sitting at her computer playing games.  She was obviously very excited about the Christmas party because she had been having to take Morphine and Ativan before she was able to get dressed for some time at this point.  Also, it would usually take a while to get her completely dressed because it used up the little bit of reserve she had left in her lungs, so I would have to help her put one thing on at a time with her needing a break between each.  I thought she must have gotten up awfully early in order to accomplish getting completely dressed by herself with no Morphine.  I believe she said she had gotten up at 5:30 a.m.  All I can say is . . . Wow!  Think about it, this was only 3 days before she passed away, so you know she was suffering.  She was obviously very determined in the things she really wanted to do.

What was so great about Christmas Eve, was that Carol's son Kenny, his wife Angie, and their children, Michelle, Jonathan, and Hannah, were spending the night.  They had moved to South Carolina this past summer and had decided to spend Christmas with Angie's family, who lives in King George, Virginia, and with Kenny's family.  Although Kenny, Angie and the kids were staying with Angie's parents, they decided to spend the night with us on Christmas Eve so all of Carol's grandchildren could get up on Christmas morning and open gifts together.  Her son Victor also came from Winchester, Virginia with Carol's ex-husband, John, who lives in Hagerstown, Maryland.

 

Mom wasn't doing very well.  She hadn't eaten since the evening of the 22nd, she slept the entire day on the 23rd until the evening when we all gathered in the living room open the gifts in our stockings.  Mom seemed the same as she was at the Christmas party, and she was smiling and commenting on her gifts and such.  But on the 24th she woke up very panicked and unable to talk.  Her breathing was a deep gurgling sound.  She wasn't even able to hold her breath long enough to swallow the liquid morphine until after I gave her a breathing treatment.  After giving her the Morphine and Ativan I sat with her and rubbed her head for a little bit to help her to relax until the Morphine and Ativan started working.  When she was comfortable she asked that I put a diaper on her.  She stayed in bed the entire day and wouldn't eat anything.  She slept all day, but woke for short moments as we and the grandchildren were in and out of her room throughout the day.  I was giving her Morphine more regularly now.

On Christmas morning, all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren -- Sarah, Alexa, Carys, Victoria, Michelle, Johnathan, Hannah, Ian, and Riley --  got up around 6:00 a.m.  (Amanda had come later that day).  I went into Mom's room and woke her to ask her if she felt like joining us in the living room to open gifts.  She said she wanted to, so the kids had to be patient while I spent some time preparing Mom so she would be comfortable while opening gifts and tolerating the excitment.  I gave her Morphine and Ativan and had her rest until the medication started working.  Then I helped her out to the living room.  She said she needed to sit in a dining room chair so we moved one into the living room.  I knew why she needed the dining room chair -- there just wasn't enough room left in her lungs for the exertion it would take to stand back up after sitting on the softer sofa.

 

Everyone was together in the living room -- Me (Brenda), Curtis, Kenny, Angie, Victor, Sarah, Alexa, Carys, Victoria, Michelle, Jonathan, Hannah, Ian, Riley, Dad, and Mom.  I was pulling gifts out from under the tree and calling out names, the kids were all so excited.  Mom was very quiet and still, but I saw her smile, especially when the grandkids would go to her to give her a thankful hug, after opening the gift she gave them.

 

After we finished opening gifts Mom didn't stay in the living room much longer.  She walked back to her room, got into her bed, and never got up again. 

 

Sometime after Victor, Dad, and Kenny and his family left, Mom had another one of those episodes where her breathing sounded like a deep gurgling and she was panicking.  I did the same thing I had done the day before -- I was encouraging her to try to relax and telling her everything was going to be okay as I gave her a breathing treatment.  Then I gave her some Morphine and Ativan and had her lay down while I rubbed her head until the medication began to work.  I asked her if she wanted extra Prednisone (like I had given her the day before during her episode) and she said, "No, cause it'll make me bruise".  She must have noticed the same thing that I had noticed -- for the first time in two years Mom had no bruises anywhere (usually her arms and hands were covered with dark, purple bruises) except for one small bruise beside the bottom of the thumb on her left hand that she had gotten two weeks before when I had taken her to church with me.  An older woman in my church had come up to her and shook Mom's hand and a small bruise appeared.  As the week went by the bruise kept getting bigger, but today it was small and was on it's way to disappearing.

 

She didn't have any more of those episodes but she was calling me more often telling me she couldn't breathe and was asking for Morphine.  I tried to stay in her room with her, but she was so keenly aware when I was there that it kept her from resting.  So I set the baby monitor up and listened for her.  I stayed awake all night and came to her as soon as she called.  I knew something was probably happening, but I wasn't 100% sure because, although she had never had a gurgling episode before, she had struggled more than usual before and seemed better after a couple of days of antibiotics.  Her doctor decided that I should just keep a prescription of antibiotics on hand because since her lungs were so bad there was no way to tell if she had a bronchial infection or not, so we could only treat her symptoms.  Whenever Mom was feeling like she had an infection I would give her the antibiotics and when she finished that prescription, I would get another one right away to have on hand for the next time.

 

It was the holidays and Mom's doctor was out of town.  No other doctor wanted to do anything, not even prescribe an antibiotic because they didn't know her.  I just kept telling her not to worry, that I would call her doctor's office on Tuesday (which would be the day after Christmas) and make sure she's comfortable until then.

Carol passed away on the morning of December 26, 2007 at 2:55 a.m. in her daughter's home where she had been living since March 3, 2006.  Carol had been suffering more than usual for a couple of days before her death, but in the end, went peacfully to be with her Lord.

 

As I said before, I knew something different was happening, but I wasn't 100% sure since Mom had expressed on the 24th that perhaps she had another bronchial infection.  Even now a surge of panic will surge through me from time to time, and I will think that maybe it was like all the other times and Mom would have been fine if I was able to give her the antibiotics.  I have those short moments of "what did I do!  I was so irresponsible not to have those antibiotics on hand!  Look what happened the one time I didn't have the antibiotics on hand!"  But, always in the end, I know two things:  (1) even if Mom did have an infection and the antibiotics helped, they would only have prolonged the inevidable, just like the rest of her medications were doing, and (2) there's no way Mom would be gone right now without God calling her home.

On November 8, 2008, Carol's third great-grandchild, Devyn Deray Dean, was born to her granddaughter, Kristian.

On May 9, 2009, Carol's fourth great-grandchild, Olivia Megan Kistler, was born to her granddaughter, Sarah.

On June 13, 2009, Carol's granddaughter, Amanda, was married to Anthony Smith.  A balloon was released during the ceremony in honor of Carol's memory.  Amanda and Anthony were later divorced, but Anthony remains a part of the family.

On March 2, 2010, Carol's fifth great-grandchild, Dallas Michael Dean, Jr., was born to her granddaughter, Kristian.

On 2013 Carol's great-grandaughter Caroline Estelle Brown was born to her granddaughter Victoria.

On January 25, 2014, Carol's great-granddaughter Kay Abby Williams was born, and was adopted by her granddaughter Alexandra in April 2021.

On May 16, 2014, Carol's Granddaughter, Victoria Aron Shields, married Jared Brown.

On October 6, 2016, Carol's ex-husband John Henry Wolff died suddenly and unexpectedly, being found collapsed on the floor in his home.  Neither Carol or John ever remarried and, though things were tense for a few years after their divorce, they ended up being friends for many years up until the day of Carol's death.

On July 25, 2017, Carol's grandaughter, Sarah Elizabeth Sjields, married Shaun Michael Kistler.

On January 23, 2018, Carol's great-granddaughter m, Parker May Brown, was born to her granddaughter Victoria.

On July 27, 2018 Carol's great grandson, Seth Michael Kistler, ws born to Carol's granddaughter Sarah.

On May 14, 2019, Carol's oldest three great-grandchildren, Ian William Foster, Riley Cheyenne Foster, and Olivia Megan Foster, born to Carol's granddaughter Sarah Elizabeth Shields, were officially adopted by their step-father, Sarah's second husband, Shaun Michael Kistler.

On May 18, 2019, Carols granddaughter, Alexandra Rosa Marie Shields, married Mary Williams.

In April 2021, Carol's great-grandaughter, Kay Abby Williams, was officially adopted by her grandaughter Alexandra.