Obituary of Carla Kulhanek Mazzone

*UPDATE - Due to inclement weather, the Celebration of Life service for Carla has been postponed and will be held at a later date this Spring. "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Carla Kulhanek Mazzone was born on June 16, 1939, in Jackson Heights, New York, the only child to Louis and Emma Wagner Kulhanek. As a young child, Carla and her family moved to Middletown, New York. She graduated from Middletown High School in 1957 where she was an excellent student who enjoyed acting in school plays. After high school, she attended Orange County Community College. On the first day of class, she met Richard Mazzone, who would become her best friend and husband of fifty years. Carla and Richard married in 1959, and headed to Harpur College in Binghamton, NY to continue their studies. They enjoyed their years of college life, according to their custom; Richard studied all day while Carla cheerfully socialized with friends in the school cafeteria. It was to Richard's feigned vexation that despite Carla's casual attitude toward studying, she always got better grades than he did. Carla graduated from Harpur College in 1961 and returned to Middletown to take care of her widowed mother, Emma. Carla taught for thirty-two years, nearly all of it teaching French at Middletown High School. She loved teaching and was by all accounts a gifted teacher. She was characteristically modest about her success, however, insisting instead that it owed to the caliber of her wonderful students. It was a delight in simple pleasures that defined Carla. She cherished cooking, reading, and growing flowers. She loved singing and dancing with Richard. She loved listening to the sound of the rain. She loved the smell of the ocean and the clear blue of the North Carolina coast. But most of all, she loved time with her family, friends and neighbors, delighted in the simple joy of togetherness. Her gentle, welcoming and generous nature was offered immediately to everyone she met. In 1998, Carla and Richard retired to Fearrington Village, just south of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where they would spend the rest of their days. Richard passed in 2010, and Carla joined him on January 15, 2016. She will be interred at the Columbarium at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, alongside Richard and her mother. Carla is survived by her sons, Marc Richard Mazzone, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Erik Louis Mazzone, of Raleigh, North Carolina, and daughter-in-law, Christine Meyer Mazzone, of Raleigh, North Carolina. *Due to inclement weather, the Celebration of Life service for Carla will be held at a later date this Spring.