CAROL K. HEINECKEN

CORNWALL — Carol Heinecken of Cornwall, 84, passed away peacefully with her family by her side, on Dec. 16, 2024, at Porter Rehab after a three-year progressive journey living with Lewy Body dementia. In its later stages, the journey was eased by the wonderful support she received as part of the Project Independence family in Middlebury.

Carol was born Aug. 4, 1940, in Wilmington, Del., the second of five children of Walter Reynolds Kelk and Margaret Vessels Kelk. She attended Edgemoor Elementary School, Mt. Pleasant Junior High School, and graduated from Mt. Pleasant Senior High School in 1958. She enrolled at the University of Delaware, where both of her parents had graduated in the early 1930s, and from which she graduated with a degree in Elementary Education in 1962.

Carol met her husband-to-be, Mickey, while both were students at the University of Delaware. After two months of dating, Mickey proposed, and three months later the captain of the cheerleaders married the captain of the football team. This was certainly not a course of events that they would even dream of recommending to their own children Kevin, Dawn, and Kerri, who made more realistic life-choices. Theirs is a story straight out of a romance novel and 62 years of marriage later that amazing journey of love and happiness on this earth has come to a peaceful end in the loving arms of her family.

Carol came to love Vermont and the many friends she made after being (somewhat) dragged by Mickey to this wondrously new and beautiful place in 1973. In her early years of living in their special Cornwall home, she immersed herself in being the master-in-charge of raising her kids and loving her third-grade students and fellow teachers at Bristol elementary school, where she taught for 19 years.

Since her retirement in 2000, her life was filled with fun and adventure: Watching her grandchildren, Hayley, Lindsey, Tyler, and Keegan grow from their diaper days to be the very special young women and men they are today; working in her garden; enjoying her early morning walks with one of her beloved golden retrievers; and laughing, with a smile that could melt a rock, with one of her many friends. Her life was filled with joy.

For parts of ten years, she spent her time with Mickey travelling around much of the U.S. and Canada in a pick-up truck camper rigged with bikes, kayaks and skis, always prepared for new adventures. They then spent many more years traveling to a variety of South American countries. These were not only amazing experiences for both of them, but they also felt they were sending a message to many of their friends that aging is not the end, but the beginning of whole new world — one to be faced with joy and enthusiasm, with eyes wide open. That hope remains to this day.

Sadly Carol’s final journey has ended before we expected, but as her favorite song expresses so eloquently, “it’s time to say goodbye.”

Her immediate family’s hearts are filled with the sadness of the moment, but there remains an overpowering sense of joy in knowing that she lived life to its fullest. She will be loved and missed by Mickey Heinecken, Kevin Heinecken, Hayley Heinecken, Lindsey Heinecken, Dawn Heinecken, Kerri Milne, Marty Milne, Tyler Milne, Keegan Milne, Bill Kelk, Peggy Hill, Mary Lou and Steve Donahoe.

Final remembrances will be private, but the entire family wants all to know that this summer there will be a joy-filled “Mickey and Carol celebration of life.” Stay tuned.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Project Independence, Middlebury, Vermont or the Lewy Body Dementia Association. ◊