What can I say about Carrie that her smile couldn't say? Her smile was radiant, inviting, warm, genuine, and full of life.
When I first moved to Dallas in 2000, my friend Matt Schneider set up my roommate Andrea and I on a blind friend date with Carrie and Michelle. I was dubious about this blind date and figured it would be an awkward dinner, some drinks and that would be the end (not unlike a real blind date). But from the moment we met Carrie and Michelle, I knew the four of us would be friends for life.
From that point on, we were pretty inseparable. Carrie, Michelle and Andrea were there the day I met my husband. Carrie and Dale went with us on our first date. Carrie and I signed up together for the infamous golf lessons where she met Dale, although unlike her I have no excuse for my pitiful golf ability.
We spent three years in Dallas together, and made so many incredible memories together, even if some of them are a bit fuzzy due to Dale's insistence on ordering multiple rounds of shots. I can't believe it was really that short because it feels like we lived and shared a lifetime together. Even though life took us all to different cities, the distance didn't affect how close we were.
Carrie was and is an inspiration. She is someone I always admired and strived to learn from. She was beautiful, smart, talented, fun, full of life. She attracted people to her and welcomed them in, always adding more guests and revelers to her ongoing party. Her determination and her attitude to how she approached everything in life, including her cancer, is her legacy. She makes everyone around her want to be a better person.