Carol Chloe Nincehelser Wirick

SUNBURY — Carol Chloe Nincehelser Wirick born June 9, 1930, died Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, at age 87, after a protracted illness. She died at home, surrounded by family, and underneath the friendship quilt her friends made her years ago. In addition to her 42 years of marriage to Ray Wirick, and raising the four wonderful children who wrote this obituary, she was a bubbly, enthusiastic grandmother of seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Carol excelled at making everyone feel welcome and special.

With her sister Rachel Nincehelser, (Stockwell), her mother Helen McCormick Nincehelser and father Henry Stewart Nincehelser, they were a Great Depression family. She learned the value of thrift and service to others while growing up on 21st Street in Columbus. She excelled at playing marbles, to the dismay of the boys who lost to her. After moving to the family farm in Sunbury, and graduating second in a class of 24 at Sunbury High School, she worked as a nanny for the children of the president of Ohio Wesleyan University, where she attended college. She met Herbert Hoover there. While in college she was very popular, and known to smoke cigars at costume parties. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1952 as an art major. She got engaged to several different men, one at a time, until she reunited with her high school sweetheart Ray Wirick, after he got so nervous he dove into a bush when she caught him looking at her on campus. She then worked as an art teacher and figured out the way to be popular with other teachers was to always have donuts in her classroom. Once married, she had four children in five years and worked as a substitute teacher in Big Walnut schools.

In addition to raising her kids, she was a volunteer extraordinaire, not shy of vigorous commitment to her work, serving the Red Cross, the Republican Party, Big Walnut Schools, PTO President, Big Walnut Historical Society, Delaware County Arts Castle, Sunbury United Methodist Church, Friends Who Share, Delaware County Board of Elections, Eastern Star, and the National Women's Health Initiative. She supported LGBT Rights and Planned Parenthood. She hosted then candidate John Kasich at a fundraiser in her home. She cooked for Lions. Every month for years, she made birthday cakes for residents of a local nursing home, because she didn't want them to be forgotten. She was active in two ladies' groups for more than fifty years: Searchlight Club and Diapers to Degrees Mothers' Club. They were girlfriends for life.

She did all this while caring for her father Stewart Nincehelser, and her aunt Esther McCormick, who lived in houses next door to her for over thirty years until they died.

She was a lady with passions. She would tackle a project and master it, turning herself into a tractor-driving farmer, a room mother, a hat-knitting machine, a lasagna-making cook, a one-woman quilting bee, a swimmer, a woodworker, a maple syrup tapper, a hooked rug maker, a bloodmobile organizer, an international traveler, a memoir writer. She had energy and effervescence. In the summer of 1985 she hiked 8 miles from Sunbury to Westerville nearly every day, just because she felt like it. She was funny, daffy, creative, and caring. Every day she was "fine and dandy."

In her self-published memoir and family history, Shadows Captured: she wrote "There are times when my life is just too wonderful. Life is truly a gift that goes far beyond my imagination. I suspect that any afterlife for me will be in those people who knew me or see something I have done. I'm willing to be surprised though." Indeed.

She is survived by her children, Sally Beske, (Bryan Beske), Kevin Wirick (Sheila Wirick) Dale Wirick, (Nancy Wirick), Carrie Wirick (Thomas Smith); grandchildren, Colin Beske (Kathleen Rowland), Sarah Beske (Timothy Zepelak) Stewart Wirick, Spencer Wirick, Mindy Pyle (Justin Pyle), Tyler Smith, Celeste Smith; and great-grandchildren, Emma Pyle, Claire Pyle, Juliet Rowland-Beske, and Theodore Rowland-Beske. Special thanks go to Visiting Angels for their loving care of our mother.

Friends may call from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017 at the DeVore-Snyder Funeral Home, 637 N. State Route 61 at State Route 3, Sunbury. Services will be held 11 a.m. Thursday at the Sunbury United Methodist Church, 100 W. Cherry St., Sunbury. Burial will follow in Sunbury Memorial Park.

Memorial contributions can be made to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37839, Boone, IA 50037.

Condolences may be expressed at www.snyderfuneralhomes.com.