Robert Michael Rader
My beloved sister Carol Ann Rader did everything well. Whenever she groomed, rode or showed horses, perhaps her favorite pastime, she attired herself just so, practiced and rehearsed the drill or routine, and displayed the same respect and affection for the horse on which she was saddled that a master violinist would show her Stradivarius.
Among so many that Carol tirelessly helped were newcomers to the Catholic faith whom she instructed at Our Lady of the Lakes; the disabled and others in need for whom Carol trained numerous service dogs; and children who required a guardian ad litem to investigate and advocate for the child's best interests in legal proceedings in which parental care was lacking. Whether a longtime friend or someone she just met walking out a hotel door, Carol offered the full measure of her attention and warmth to all she touched.
Though Carol’s kindness was boundless, she traveled abroad to enrich her own life with culture and history – the Holy Land, Krakow and the Vatican – and still found time to attend a distant family wedding or baptism. Beyond faith and family, a yearning for thrills and adventure also resided in Carol: rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, schooner sailing off the coast of Maine and skydiving, of all things, into her seventies.
Decades ago, Carol moved to Deland from up north to care for and comfort our mother Martha Lou Rader, a resident of the old Cloisters retirement home. In Deland, Carol was likewise mother and best friend to her daughter Susan Sumner and her family. We are all so blessed to have known my sister Carol and to have shared the legacy of her faith and companionship.