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The
Story of Carolyn Stehr
By
Helen Hosier
Raised in a staunch and very conservative background, Carolyn Stehr states
“The Roaring Lambs class and the Wednesday morning women’s Bible class
have profoundly affected my spiritual life.
I feel like I finally really belong, that I am a part of this.
I have learned so much since I started attending
in contrast to all the years growing up and attending church as an
adult where I was involved. I knew
the Bible stories, had the catechism, and didn’t doubt a thing, but now I
know I’ve come a long way. I
never had what you could call ‘an awakening’.
Now I know and understand and my faith is grounded and real.
I’m always anxious to come on Sunday mornings and don’t want to
miss the women’s class during the week and to see and hear what’s going
on.”
A true southern lady, Carolyn grew up in Jackson and Cape Girardeau,
southeastern Missouri. Following
graduation she attended the St. Louis Lutheran School of Nursing.
Her husband-to-be, Don, was in the army in Louisiana.
His mother and hers were friends in Cape Girardeau where Don also grew
up; so it was that when she received a call from him saying he’d like to
come up to see her at St. Louis, she was pleasantly surprised.
“That’s how it started, and we were married in 1958.
We moved to Austin for him to get his master’s degree in business and
I worked in the operating room at St. David’s Hospital (He finished in a
year) and then we came to Dallas where he went through the first phase of his
training with IBM. Our daughter
was born while here. Then we moved
to Shreveport, Louisiana where our two sons were born.
We moved around a lot in those early years.
We moved back to Dallas again and he was in the district office;
finally they moved us to Houston in 1969 and we were there until 1980.
We lived in a wonderful community, the children attended wonderful
schools and I have fond memories of that period in our lives.”
Carolyn took some refresher nursing courses and worked part-time as a
nurse at the Medical Center in Houston. After
having been out of the nursing field for twenty years it was truly a rude
awaking. However Carolyn and her
classmates shared many laughs in their carpools to the hospital and class
experiences. After eleven years
once again they were asked to move back to Dallas.
“My husband retired from IBM after thirty years, but he wasn’t
quite ready for retirement so he worked for Halliburton five years, and then
finally decided upon full retirement. Once
again I decided to work part-time at the Plano Medical Center in the
outpatient surgery department. I
loved being a surgical nurse and I have missed it, but I don’t have any
desire to go back to it. I retired
in 1997 a year before my husband died.”
“We were at our lake house at Houston County Lake
and he was out raking leaves. I
missed him and went outside and found him.
It was December 1998. He’d
had a heart attack.”
Life goes on for those left behind.
Carolyn, her three children, and grandchildren are thankful for all the
happy memories. “One oldest son
and his family live in Houston, my daughter and her family are in Pleasanton,
California, and my youngest son and family live in Frisco.
I have seven grandchildren who are a delight.”
Carolyn enjoys her many friends with whom she plays bridge and
socializes. An avid reader,
Carolyn participates in a couple of book clubs; she’s an accomplished
knitter and we never know what beautiful thing she’s going to do next.
“The highlight of midweek is going to the women’s Bible class and
then Sunday’s coming to this Bible study.
Now I’m anticipating taking my oldest granddaughter, Lauren, to Italy
for her high school graduation. I’m
proud that she’s graduating as Valedictorian of her class.
“The spontaneity of Garry and the people in this study who can
verbalize their faith so well is a blessing.
I’m grateful to Everett and Sandi May for inviting
me to attend and have been coming ever since.”
We are blessed to have Carolyn’s friendship.
She’s that attractive petite woman with the short platinum gray hair
that always sits at one of the back tables.
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