[Oe List ...] Carol Pierce

Mon Sep 24 09:23:40 PDT 2012

Carol Pierce was on the staff of the Academy in the winter of 1972 when I attended as a participant and then joined the faculty for the spring of 1973. She was a formidable woman and I was in awe of her ability to see right through people and casually state the spirit struggle which were mirrored in the paper or course we were holding at the time. One of my jobs was to get up early and knock on all the doors of the faculty at 4:30 A.M. so we would be ready to go when everyone else was supposed to be at Daily Ritual at 5:00 A.M. sharp. One morning I knocked on the Pierce door: Praise the Lord Christ is Risen...to which the answer was supposed to be... He is risen indeed...but instead I heard a male voice say...Christ is Dead, Go Back to Bed... I was stunned.  I said, Are you awake, are you okay? and I got back a weak Yes, yes, he is risen indeed from a female voice....  Later that week Carol came up to me and apologized.  I told her not to worry about it, I will just keep knocking and asking the question. Joe apologized too. He said he always has something to declare. After that each morning was a strong two voiced answer... He is Risen Indeed!

A couple of years ago, may be 2009 or 2010, I don't remember. It was during the summer when I usually visit Marge and Lela. It was after lunch we had a tornado announcement on the tv in Chicago. I have been in lots of typhoon watches in Taiwan, but wondered who might need assistance if the electricity went out and walked over to Carol's apartment in the corner of the seventh floor of the Kemper building. Lela was at work and Marge was downstairs in the basement. I knocked on Carol's door and she came out in her wheelchair, a group of us were huddled in the hallway. One of the residents said it was probably safer away from the windows in the hallway all together. I asked if people had cracked their windows to prevent air pressure build up. Some said yes, others went to open a small crack. We discussed what would happen if the electricity went out and the elevators would not work. We got out a battery operated radio, we had our cell phones or flashlights and talked about the fact that a disadvantage of no landlines in an emergency is that sometimes the cell phones don't work and phone systems run by electricity don't work too. I told them we collect water in the bathtub to flush toliets and make sure we have drinking water in Taiwan along with food supplies. Carol pointed out we have a water tank and it would take some time to drain it all out. We just had lunch and we were not hungry. We talked about carrying people down the stairs in a fireman's carry with our arms crisscrossed. Carol looked me straight in the eyes and asked if I had ever done it before. I said no, but I trained for this as a girl scout and in first aid. She calmly said, that's fine,  I will take my chances up here and thank you for your offer. Send up one of those strong firemen if it comes to that! I was relived because I was not sure if I could actually go seven flights carrying another person between us! But if I had to, I would do it. I just said I would stay with her if the lights went out and not to worry, we would figure it out. Do you have any candles and matches? Of course we all said we would stay with her and she just shook her head. We all smiled and then one of the residents said, the alert has changed color, it has passed over us, just relax.  We all went back inside our apartments to look at tv screens and think about what we just said to each other. 

Carol was a symbol of the old guard and the permanent house church for me.  We have only a precious few among us still and I am sad to hear of her passing. As I age, I hope I am able to be strong and gracious as she was to me. We celebrate the life and death of Carol Pierce and send our sincere prayers to her family in this phase of transition. Praise be to God. Amen Amen.

Sing the Doxology to the tune of Ghost Riders in the Sky..

Grace and Peace,

Evelyn Philbrook for Larry, Evelyn, Lloyd and Lela Philbrook.

On Sep 24, 2012, at 7:15 PM, PSchrijnen at aol.com wrote:

> I keep on wanting to read more emails about Carol's life and death, but she has 'waved goodbye and is on her way'. Such sadness....
>  
> Grace and Peace,
> 
> Paul
>  
> In a message dated 22/09/2012 02:35:19 GMT Daylight Time, dshahn31 at gmail.com writes:
> News of Carol's death hits hard. We traveled quite a journey together, as did we all. And in many way, it continues.
> 
> Charles and I traveled three months in 1966, with Carol and Joe, visiting countries of the Arab world. We spent a lot of time reading, talking and reflecting before we left Chicago, and of course, that continued throughout the trip. During meals and coffee/tea breaks, Carol often made some succinct comment (laced with facts and figures) about the current country we were visiting. Joe would say, "How do you know that?" to which Carol would reply, "Well, it was in that book we read before we left Chicago." And Joe would just shake his head in disbelief (and some degree of disgust).
> 
> I last saw Carol at her apartment. We had to rush the visit a bit, because she was being picked up by some specially equipped vehicle and whisked off to a medical appointment. So, my last memory of Carol is her wheeling herself onto a elevator/platform that went up a few feet from her "garden" apartment to ground level, thereby allowing her to move her wheelchair directly out onto the driveway. She wheeled around, waved goodbye and was on her way.
> 
> Grace and Peace,
> Doris Hahn
> 
> On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 7:04 AM, George Holcombe <geowanda1 at me.com> wrote:
> Thanks, John and Ann.  The first time I went to 3444 (was it '63,'64, can't remember), it was in the afternoon.  I got out of the taxi and went through the door, no security then, went up the stairs and the only two people around were Carol and Kathy (now Zervigon), walking down the hallway.  They immediately greeted me, treated me to coffee and we talked as if we had known each other forever for I don't know how long.  After that I never sensed that I didn't know Carol.  She had a way of twisting her mouth and saying in that southern drawl something that would shift the mood of the conversation whenever it went off track, even when Pierce was rocketing off on some subject that was blowing out all the light bulbs.  I'm a bit sad, hoped to have had one more conversation.
> 
> George Holcombe
> 14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
> Austin, TX 78728
> Mobile 512/252-2756
> geowanda1 at me.com
> 
> Hope appeareth, but it is not your Hope—you do not have anything to do with it. It just appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—it just appeareth! You do not even know why you hope. How in the world could you hope when there is absolutely nothing to justify any hope?    ~Joseph W. Mathews
> 
> 
> On Sep 20, 2012, at 10:12 PM, jlepps at pc.jaring.my wrote:
> 
> > Carol Pierce
> > A person of presence, graciousness, competence, and humor: when we knew her, she embodied those features along with a twinkle that demonstrated a certain detachment from the immediate crises with which she was involved. Her spirit and style will be greatly missed. We join the Order and the family in celebrating her completed life. And we are grateful for the privilege of having known and worked with her.
> >
> > Grace & Peace
> > Ann & John Epps
> >
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