In Memory of Carrie BooklessPassed Away December 30, 2001
Carrie Bookless (nicknamed Ferishyn) joined our support group in May of 2001. She had been monitoring our posts on the message board for over a year before she decided to join our group!
Carrie was a very beautiful person. She loved everyone and became quick friends with the manager of this support group, Luba Kobzeff. She was married to a wonderful and understanding man named Tod. (these were Carrie's words exactly!) This man married Carrie regardless of the condition she was in. Now if that is not true love, what is? Together, they built a life and a love that would last a lifetime. Carrie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Alexander. Alexander was a high risk pregnancy because of Carrie's condition but Carrie knew the Lord God would be with her. Alexander was everything Carrie and Tod had wished for and more! He was loving, smart, and extremely adored by his parents.
Carrie Bookless was put on the organ transplant waiting list in October of 2001 to receive a pair of lungs. In 1993, Carrie was injured in a car accident which caused Carrie to receive Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Four years later her lungs were continuing to worsen. Carrie was forced to go on oxygen and begin the long process to get on the organ transplant waiting list.
During the week of December 17th 0f 2001, Carrie's saturation levels kept on dropping and she was ultimately admitted to the hospital. Carrie left the hospital the day before Christmas and she was able to watch Alexander play with his new toys in their recently purchased home. In her last post to manager Luba Kobzeff dated on Christmas Day, Carrie wrote that one night she had thought of all the wonderful things that have happened to her in the past year. She was also thankful to the Lord that He had given her another year to experience all the good things in life. Towards the last few days of her life, did Carrie know she would be passing away shortly? Possibly. She had spoken of a sudden urge to thank everyone she knew and that she was extremely grateful to the Lord for all He had given her and for all He had created on this earth for her happiness.
Carrie Bookless died on December 30th, of 2001. The day before New Year's Eve which is a day that rushes in the beginning of a new year. But yet Carrie would never see that day. She had died on the last day of the year, a year which had already passed everyone by and a year that would never be again.
This memorial page of Carrie was created so that we would not forget those who had joined our support group and became part of our lives and hearts. Carrie was the first member of undoubtedly more members of this group who are to pass away in the future. Yet, she lived a great life. She had family and friends who loved her. She had her own little quilting business on the side which made her happy and a little money on the side. And Carrie did almost the impossible by relying on God to bring her through her pregnancy with Alexander! She had the love of an amazing and loving husband who saw through her weakness and saw the strengths in her. What else could Carrie have wished for in her final days? What else could she have wished for in her whole life? Nothing because it was perfect and Carrie Bookless knew it and rightly thanked the Lord for all she had received.
In Memory of Carrie Bookless and all other members of the
Heart-Lung Transplant Support Group who pass away. 
By: Luba Kobzeff,
Support Group Manager & Friend 
