On June 28, 2019, Carol Anne Metcalf Freeland passed away in a Calgary hospital with her children holding her as she took her last breaths. 

Born in Detroit on September 27, 1944, Carol lived a life filled with friendships, family, music, and love that took her around the United States and eventually to Alberta. After a childhood on Grosse Ile, Michigan, Carol moved from adolescence into adulthood in St. Petersburg, Florida, where, after finishing high school there, she attended the University of South Florida, began playing music, and met and married her first husband, Jim Lewis. The couple soon moved to Baton Rouge, and then New Orleans, Louisiana, before settling in the San Francisco area around 1970. Carol lived the next ten years in Marin County, California, during which time she and Jim separated, but remained close friends.

In Florida and Louisiana, Carol had worked in retail as a reliable way of helping support herself and Jim, and in California she was able to combine this with one of her life’s passions: music. In Marin County, she found success working in a Yamaha music store, and eventually owned her own business selling sheet music. 

In 1980, however, a chance encounter in Edmonton precipitated a dramatic change, as Carol fell in love with an Alberta farmer and lawyer and moved to Peace River, Alberta, marrying Don Freeland in September of that same year, also gaining step-daughters Chrystia and Natalka. Over the next few years, she gave birth to two daughters, Katie in 1981 and Anne in 1982, and welcomed a son, Adik (born 1984), in 1994. In Peace River, Carol began working as a realtor with Century 21, working her way to becoming a brokerage owner before leaving the business to focus on managing Don’s law office and farm. In the 1980s, she was active for a short time in the local amateur theatre, and in the 1990s, enjoyed volunteering in support of her favourite radio network, CKUA. 

For her first two decades in Alberta, Carol treasured her yearly trips to Florida to visit her siblings and other family, where she also took great joy in watching sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. Over the years, she and Don would also travel to Europe, Argentina, Chile, and her personal favourite, Hawaii. In addition to time with her husband and children, something Carol always cherished was listening to music, and summers saw her and Don travelling, first with children and then alone, to various folk and jazz festivals around Alberta and BC, usually with their holiday trailer in tow. 

Beginning in 2009, Carol and Don began living part of each year in Canmore, the site of one of her favourite festivals, his favourite hiking and skiing, and both of their favourite restaurants. Before she entered long-term care in 2017, Carol could gaze for hours at the majestic mountains around the town, silently moved by them. Her final two years were spent in the care of kind and capable people working in continuing care in Calgary as well as Canmore Hospital’s Golden Eagle View, for whom her family is very grateful. 

Carol’s love and memories live on—in Alberta, Toronto, New York, and beyond—in her husband Don, children Katie, Anne, and Adik, step-children Chrystia and Natalka, her sister Mary and brother Sam, cousin Marti, grandchildren George, Mikka, Dmitri, and Mattia, step-grandchildren Natalka, Halyna, Ivan, Roxelana, and Katrusia, and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends. She was predeceased by her brother Tom.

A celebration of life is being held at Murrieta's in Canmore at 4pm on August 7th. We invite those not able to join us to share a thought or memory online.