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Note: N6 Carrie Lee had a longer lifespan than any of her siblings. She lived 88 years, 6 months, 21 days pf age. Her nearest sibling in lifespan was Plug (Norman), who lived 88 years, 5 months, 12 days
BIRTH: Birth certificate MARRIAGE: Marriage license, Santa Rosa Co., FL, C.J. #356, Marriage Book 2, p. 356
How I Want to Remember Mamma by Barbara Carpenter Martin (This was the eulogy read by Richard at her funeral).
This is a memorial service for our mother, Carrie Lee Elizabeth Walther Carpenter. It would be so easy to forever remember Mamma as we have seen her over the last three or four years – her health devastated by a cruel disease that destroyed her mind while her body was still healthy. However, Mamma was so much more than that disease. I want to remember her in her good times, her healthy times. I think the best way to memorialize our mother is by recalling some of those things that she loved the most – those parts of her life that gave her joy. Her favorite outdoor activity was working in her vegetable and flower gardens. She would get out on the hottest of days and work that garden, all the time singing about the God she loved. We all remember so well her rendition of “Heavenly Sunshine, Heavenly Sunshine, Flooding my soul with glory divine”. She was never closer to heaven in this life than when she was in her garden. Even in the summer of her 85th year, she was still gardening, something she had done all her life. Her father was first a sharecropper, and then he had a farm of his own. Mamma and all her brothers and sisters worked hard in those fields and helped to bring in the crops. Always competitive, Mamma prided herself in being able to pick more sacks of cotton than her brothers. Another love of her life was her church, East Moss Point Baptist Church, of which she was a faithful member close to 60 years. For almost 45 years she taught every 4 or 5 year old child who attended Sunday School there. Sherel tells the story that when she was that age, Mamma would take her by her hand and they would begin walking to Sunday School. Along the way, she would stop at first one house and then another, collecting children along the way. Finally, they would arrive at the church with 4 or 5 other children. She felt such joy in teaching those little ones about Jesus and how He loved them so. Long after she no longer taught that class, she would ask her little great–grandchildren to sing her favorite song, “Jesus Loves Me”. Humanly speaking, the greatest love of her life was her family. She dearly loved her parents and her 7 brothers and 2 sisters. Being the oldest, she felt a responsibility for the others to the point of being fiercely protective of them. We have all heard the story, confirmed by one of their older cousins, of the time when she took on two of her boy cousins who were picking on her little brothers – and she won She was also an encourager for her siblings. While still in high school she received a work scholarship that would have paid her way to junior college where she would begin training to be a teacher. Before the school year began, the college closed and she lost the opportunity. In spite of her own disappointment, she encouraged her younger brothers to go on for further education, which some of them did. That same love and fierce protectiveness carried over into our lives – Van, Sandra, John and myself. She took to heart and practiced the scripture: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. Mamma never sent us to church, but she TOOK us to church. She did not display a Bible on the coffee table, collecting dust. It was beside her bed, where she studied it daily. She literally wore her Bibles to pieces, and she followed the teachings as best she could. On the day when Sandra, Van and I were getting her admitted to the first nursing home, she had to see her doctor for an examination. While waiting for him to do his paperwork, she was talking softly to herself: “All the children – All the little children – they made teachers and preachers – Just shows what God can do with someone who doesn’t have anything”. We knew she was thinking of how God had used her in guiding our lives. As much as she loved all of these, the absolute greatest love of her life was the love she had for God. She became a Christian when she was 15 years old. She trusted her Jesus to guide her and protect her. She had daily communion with Him through prayer and Bible reading. While she was far from perfect and never claimed to be so, she tried to follow the leading of her Heavenly Father. Long after His name had slipped from her memory, she saw a picture of Jesus and recalled that he had died for her sins. While at Azalea Gardens in Wiggins, Van pointed to the same picture and asked if she knew who it was. She said, “I don’t know his name but I know he is the dearest Friend I have.” When conversations with us had ceased, she still made a loud and joyful noise singing hymns that only her soul could recognize. Her faith sustained her and gave her comfort to the end of her days. A day or so following her surgery last fall, I heard her pray this prayer: “God, don’t let me die yet. I want to live just a little bit longer”. God heard her prayer and did just that. From then until this recent illness, she made her new home at the Plaza in Pascagoula. In that “little bit of time” that she requested, she seemed happier, she made good friends with those taking care of her, she saw more of her own family and friends, and she relished the visits of her little great-grandchildren. She conducted marathon conversations with people seen only in her own distant memory. For our part, we saw her smile again, and we felt encouraged. Her prayer was answered and we were all blessed. God has now called Mamma home. I can just see her there - standing in the middle of the lushest garden in heaven, with dozens of little children running around singing “Jesus Loves Me”. She loved her Walther family reunions and her church homecomings, but she is enjoying the greatest homecoming and family reunion now. Let’s rejoice in that, and let’s claim the scripture that says, “And her children rise up and call her blessed”.
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