Carol Luikey

Carol Luikey, formerly of Millbury, passed away recently at Notre Dame Healthcare. Her daughter was at her side throughout the day.

Carol grew up in Worcester and often reminisced about the city's parks, parades, skating rinks, Main Street shopping (like Lerner, Woolworth and Denholm’s) and other activities that marked her childhood. She was a happy child who enjoyed the company of her parents along with simple pleasures like coloring, marbles, jacks, reading, and taking care of her dolls and small birds. She had fond memories of many afternoons spent at the Worcester Girls Club. As a teenager she worked in the kitchen at St. Vincent's Hospital.

She loved school and talked happily about helping teachers with classroom duties and acting as a “mini waitress” in the teachers' lunchroom. One of her favorite stories involved a teacher sending the student who sat behind her to stand in the coat closet because he'd been caught trying to dip Carol's ponytail into his inkwell.

She was a graduate of the Worcester Public Schools and David Hale Fanning Trade School where she became a Licensed Practical Nurse. Nursing was the only career she wanted to pursue.

Carol spent 40 years at St. Vincent's Hospital as an L.P.N. in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and later on a cardiothoracic stepdown floor. She finished her career doing private duty nursing for a family of whom she was very fond.

Many patients and families wrote cards and letters about the care she provided. She kept in touch with families after they left her care. She was a natural caregiver who excelled at putting people at ease in stressful and frightening medical situations. She knew just the right thing to say and was able to melt away the complexities to focus on a person's comfort.

She enjoyed camping on the Cape and in Plymouth for decades. Campground neighbors became cherished year-round friends.

She and her late husband later enjoyed many seasons in Southwest Florida. They made many new friends from around the country and explored that state and the East Coast by RV. She played guitar and performed with local bluegrass groups in Florida for years.

Carol enjoyed many crafts and crocheted blankets and baby clothes for everyone’s children and grandchildren, then later for local charities. She enjoyed reading mysteries, going to musical performances, watching classic movies, listening to the radio shows of the 1940s and 1950s, being in the family pool, and sitting by the Cape Cod Canal.

She loved being a companion on her daughter’s work trips in Europe. Her son’s work allowed her and her late husband to visit the West Coast and other locations.

Family came first! There is no situation in which anything took priority over family care. She provided years of demanding care for her parents beginning when her children were young. She nursed her husband through a successful organ transplant in middle age. Decades later at the end of his life she provided intense round-the-clock care at home for years at a level that few could sustain. She would hop on a plane without hesitation for her daughter or her son’s family.

She maintained an immaculate home and yard, and regarded the household chores most of us want to avoid as the ideal way to unwind after a 3-11:30 p.m. (or later) shift at the hospital. The refrigerator was covered with artwork from her grandchildren. She happily arranged and rearranged dozens of family photos in small decorative frames throughout the house. She was known for being neat, organized and prepared.

She cared deeply about animals. She adored the family's adopted dogs, cats and birds. She was widely known throughout Notre Dame Healthcare for her creative and detailed storytelling about horses, camels, deer on the beach, robins at the window and more.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law and by her son, his wife and their two children. She also leaves her sister-in-law and her nephew, his wife and their two children. A special mention goes to cherished cousins out of state and a dear friend who was her Matron of Honor and is the Godmother to her daughter. She is predeceased by her parents, her husband and her brother-in-law. Her adopted cat now lives with a dear friend of her daughter's and this means so much.

Heartfelt gratitude is extended to the staff at Notre Dame Healthcare for several years of compassionate, loving care. Many people made such an enormous difference to Carol and her daughter. It's a relief and a pleasure to know that there are such good people in the world.

Appreciation is also extended to Reliant Medical Group Mobile Geriatrics Team and in particular the office nurses who gave her daughter such needed support starting when they worked for Carol's former primary care physician.

Services will be private.

If you would like to honor Carol's memory, please consider a donation to this all-volunteer animal rescue that honors her love for adopted animals and has brought years of joy to her family: King Street Cats, 25 Dove Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 or online at https://www.kingstreetcats.org/ 

Carol and her husband both supported their hometown and felt that no one should be hungry in a country like ours. If you would like to honor this conviction, please donate to the food pantry in care of the Millbury Senior Center at 1 River Street, Millbury, MA 01527. Pet food donations are accepted there also.

Donations to Notre Dame Healthcare would also be appreciated in light of the compassion that makes this organization stand out. That address is Notre Dame Healthcare Center, 555 Plantation Street, Attn: Development, Worcester MA 01605 or online at https://www.notredamehealthcare.org/donate/ 

Thank you on behalf of Carol's family.