Please follow this link to watch a video with some special memories from Carmen's life
Video Link: In Loving Memory of Carmen SilverCarmen was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. She passed away on February 2nd, 2021 at the age of 63 after a courageous 4 month battle with brain cancer. She married Larry on February 2nd, 1980 and they had an amazing marriage for 41 wonderful years.
Carmen spent much of her life teaching preschool, caring for children and creating beautiful things. She was an amazing grandma and mom but she also took care of so many other kids. She had a special way of making kids happy and they were just drawn to her. After retiring, she spent her time caring for her grandchildren, traveling when possible, quilting, sewing, card making and scrapbooking. Whatever she was working on at the time, she poured all of her heart into it.
The simplest pleasures in life brought great joy to Carmen. She loved time spent with family and friends. She loved traveling and found joy in the little things everywhere she went. Her joyful personality was contagious to everyone she met. She was so funny and could always make us laugh. She could truly light up a room and make everyone feel special and loved. There was nothing that she wouldn’t do for the people she loved, which was pretty much everyone she knew.
She spent her last few months at home being cared for by Larry, Cinnamon, Heidi, Stacey, Chad and her nurses. One of the nurses gave us this poem and it has helped ease some of our pain. We know that she is not gone, just out of sight for now and we will see her again someday.
Gone From My SightI am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"
And that is dying...
-Henry Van Dyke
