Marylin Nolte Carver, 68, passed from us on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014 at approximately 3:45 in the afternoon.
Although her body ultimately failed, her mind and spirit have ultimately prevailed and will remain an inseparable part of the many lives she touched, and our community is a far better place because of the time she shared with us in it.
Marylin was a gifted lady of uncommon strength, fortitude and insight who celebrated 50 years of marriage with the love of her life, Angus Verlin Carver. Together Marylin and Angus shared a life full of love, and they prospered from that love. As they prospered they were most generous with their family and friends with an unselfishness that is most rare, and together their marriage embodied the unconditional love that is and was nothing less than Christ-like.
Marylin took pride in being an educator and not just a teacher. She served many years in the Baldwin County School System in multiple capacities, and finished her service as an educator with Pensacola Junior College.
She specialized in helping those with reading disabilities overcome those limitations and become successful in their individual learning endeavors and their lives, and took an active part in the education of all children of Baldwin County and not just those with whom she was personally involved.
There is no doubt that for all whose lives were blessed by her unique abilities to educate us how to live that her passing is a somber and saddening point in time. It is also just as doubtless that the strength she imparted through those life lessons is what she would have us hold on to as an honorarium to her life.
Marylin was always a good humored and frank lady who never failed to express her love and appreciation for all those in her life, and whether family or student she had the uncanny gift of being able to make each person she interacted with believe how blessed she was by their presence in her life, when the reality was how blessed we were by her strength, insight and humor.
This was so, because she genuinely knew how to receive those blessings both large and small from those in her life and quickly and selflessly paid them forward. Even at her passing she was selflessly paying it forward and focusing on the needs of others ahead of the personal needs her failing body caused.
She was preceded in passing by her son, James Carver; and brother, Jimmy Nolte.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 50 years, Angus Carver; and their family, including her daughter, Tammy Ricks; her son, Andrew Carver; her son-in-law, Stephen Ricks; grandsons, Kyle Brown and Paul Ricks; and her sister, Faye Rachel.
While her passing saddens us that we will no longer have the instant access to her love and honesty and humor, we rejoice with her in her freedom from her failed body and her reunion with those who have preceded her in passing.
We also rejoice in the life education we have received from her presence with us, and know that by taking a moment to ask a simple question, “How would Marylin have handled this?” that the strength and understanding of how to right our own ship will soon follow.
Probably her greatest lesson was her final lesson by showing us how to pass. Knowing her body was failing and that her mind and spirit were unquestionably young, she as the matriarch of her family faced each day for many months bolstering those around her with her love, courage, honesty, strength and humor even as she made arrangements for her own passing.
As always, she put others ahead of herself and focused on making their needs most manageable. She was ever faithful to be of service to all who were blessed to have her as a part of their lives. With family with her, and while receiving the blessings from her family’s love for her, she knew the time and passed peacefully and suddenly.
Marylin you were so well-loved and will be so sorely missed!
A visitation will be held Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, from 6-8 p.m., at Mack Funeral Home in Robertsdale.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, at 10 a.m., at Mack Funeral Home.
Interment will be held in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery in Magnolia Springs.
Memorials may be made to the donor’s choice.
Arrangements by Mack Funeral Home & Crematory, Robertsdale.
