Family and friends of Heather Alaina Carroll took some time in the days after her death to share some personal memories of the 25-year-old Hollister woman. Carroll’s mother-in-law Susan Carroll collected some personal stories from family and close friends.
“Joy and laughter were as much a part of Heather Carroll as the color of her eyes or the clothes she was wearing,” the letter submitted via email on Tuesday started off. “They were her essence. To Heather, any situation could be bettered, and any hardship could be bore with dignity and hope.”
Family and friends remembered Carroll as a great dancer who knew the words to every country song, and who loved pickles and peanut butter. Her favorite song was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and her favorite movie was the “Wizard of Oz.”
Born Heather Alaina Beckwith on March 26, 1987, in Aberdeen, Wash., she spent her first year in Lake Quinault, Wash., according to an obituary submitted by her family to a Washington-area paper. She lived in Germany for five years, when her father was stationed there as a member of the U.S. Army. The family returned to Washington in 1993, where Heather attended school in Suquamish. She and her family were active members of the Bayside Community Church, in Kingston, Wash., where she was involved in Sunday school, children’s choir and other activities. Her Washington-based family members planned a memorial service for her at Bayside Community Church on Thursday.
A private local memorial has been planned for 2 p.m. Monday at San Juan Oaks Golf Club just outside Hollister.
Carroll started dating Grady Carroll six years ago, according to friends, and the couple had their son Riley in 2007. They were married in June 2011.
Family and friends in Hollister recalled that Heather was not a material person and did not let ambition dictate her life.
“Her idea of a fun shopping trip was going to the Goodwill Store or other thrift stores,” they wrote. “She bought many of her clothes at these stores and most of her home was decorated by bargains she found at Goodwill.”
Those close to her said she was always concerned with giving her husband and 5-year-old son the “best possible home.”
They described her as being a responsible adult while having the innocence of a child, noting that she was not jaded or cynical.
“We often teased her about being gullible and naïve, but mostly we knew she was just an angel who wanted to believe the best of everyone and every situation,” they wrote. “Heather was genuine, loyal, kind and true. She was truly a beacon of kindness and love to everyone she met.”
Mostly, they remembered her as a loving and dedicated mother, whose compassion and kindness extended to every person she met.
“Heather believed that things can be bad or good,” they wrote. “It’s what we choose to see and that everyone has a lot of good in them, no matter how selfish or mean they might seem sometimes.”
She believed kindness could bring out the good, they said.
With her son, she understood that loving a child meant sometimes having to say no even if that would lead to tears. But she always returned with a long hug and tickling.
“If she were here with you today, she’d be smiling from ear to ear and hugging all of you,” her friends and family wrote. “Her favorite part of life was being with children and all our neighborhood kids loved to run through the sprinklers with her, make chalk drawings on the sidewalk and sit under the tree in the front yard and eat popsicles on a hot day with her.”
“She believed in angels and talked about them sometimes as people she knew and sometimes of those whose spirits had gone to Heaven,” her family members wrote. “I now believe in angels, too, because Heather has been one as long as I’ve known her – now she can finally get her wings.”
Carroll is preceded in death by her grandmothers Shirley O. Reeves and Judith C. Ogle. She is survived by her son, Riley Adam Carroll, and husband, Grady; her father and mother Mark and Mardi Beckwith, of Prosser, Wash.; her sister April Souza, of Wasilla, Alaska; brother Matthew Beckwith, of Long Island, N.Y.; and her grandfathers Harold Reeves, of Silverdale, Wash. and John C. Ogle, of Danville, Wash., along with numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and adoring friends.
