I met Carolyn in 1972 when I was 8, about 52 years ago. I was living in Florida with my aunt & uncle when my dad, Bill Giles, asked her if I could stay with her while I visited him. As far as I remember, I stayed with her every summer and/or winter until I was 15 or 16 years old. My dad and I would do stuff together, visiting relatives and such, but I stayed with her.
I think of that like it was a small thing, but when I went through all of my memories, it was just like the tip of the iceberg of all of the things that she shared with me, and I’d like to share some of those memories.
I remember sitting in her basement and playing with these little clothespin dolls – when I was like 8 years old – that she helped me make, and she would give me some of her old toys that she had – and you all know Carolyn, she doesn’t give things like that easily – and she trusted me with them and I would play with her old toys and the little clothespin dolls.
I remember going with her to the Cincinnati Zoo and Kings Island. I remember watching the filming of A Girl Named Sooner in Indiana where she and my dad were extras – my dad had a small bit part.
I remember going to rehearsals and performances at Drama Workshop – it became like a part of who I was we went so many times.
I remember developing film and photographs in her darkroom with her and dad.
I remember helping her grade papers when I got older.
Once or twice when I was here for the winter time [in Cincinnati] she would take me to school with her to meet her students – her favorite students – and she even arranged for one of her favorite students to hang out with me after school and take me sledding. I had never been sledding before…I was from Florida. That was so fun.
When I was 12 she took me on a 6-week road trip from Cincinnati to the northwest – to Oregon and Washington. I think that’s when she took me also to Canada. So I’ve been in Canada, when I was 12 years old.
When I was 17 she took me on a 4 week road trip from Cincinnati through the southwest to California and Mexico, and we ended up in Louisiana [actually Gainesville, Florida where she got me a train ticket to get back to South Florida for the rest of the summer. The first train ride that I can remember. I loved it!]. But imagine, six weeks with a 17-year-old!…or four weeks… I think she did six weeks the first time and she said she was going to shorten it this time!
She helped me get into the University of Cincinnati. She did it for me. She helped me get financial aid and I lived with her during my first year of school. I look back on it now and I probably would not have gone to college if it weren’t for her.
She helped me navigate the stresses of college.
She taught me how to balance my checkbook – she’s so good at stuff like this – and she helped me get my first credit card. She taught me how to budget my money. She helped me figure out how to save money to buy my 1st 35mm camera.
She taught me how to take pictures with it and taught me how to develop my film and photographs.
She took me to ballets and symphonies – season tickets every year. (This is just while I was in school – while I was in college – up here.)
And all of these things are just the tip of the iceberg. It would take me all day to tell you all the things – all the ways – that she impacted my life… including that speech class which seems to be working right now…but it wasn’t until the last few years – when she enlisted me to publish her memoirs on a website – that I really got to know her. I learned about her life from beginning to end. Some things I knew, but didn’t really know until then. For instance, I found out that she took me on all of those road trips because her father and mother had taken her. She was sharing her childhood with me.
I learned what an incredible woman she was, so determined and super-intelligent, caring and generous – which is a little hard to reconcile because she was so tight about some things and so generous…so generous with me…as I remember all of this stuff.
When I was transcribing stories after stories for the website, I would say “how in the world did you do so much…wait a minute…you’re telling me the story about that…wasn’t that the same time you were doing this, and this, and this, and this, and planning our vacation?” She was really, really incredible and I don’t know where she got the energy.
She lived her life full throttle, squeezing every ounce out of her time here on earth.
My life pales in comparison to Carolyn Ruth Hunt’s, but it is so much richer because of what she taught me, and the things that she shared with me. I am profoundly a different person because of what she gave me.
And I go through this whole lifetime of stuff – apparently, it takes me until I am 50 or 60 years old before I grow up – and our relationship changed in this last few years and I found out that she wasn’t always pushing to get things done. When I opened up, she stopped. And listened. Like no other friend I’ve ever had. Ever. No judgment. Not an ounce of judgment that you would think you would get from a parental figure. Just an open heart and sage advice. Every time.
Thank you, Carolyn. I will miss you dearly. I will walk around with pieces of you in my heart.
*because Carolyn taught me to use my middle initial when I signed my name.