Thoughts of Claire by: Rick Kriel

I believe most of Claire’s friends and family know me, I’m Rick Kriel, Claire’s best friend and companion for her final years. I have some sentiments about Claire that I would like to share with you.

Claire was a very beautiful, but complicated woman. And when I say beautiful, I don’t just mean her physical attributes, but the beauty in the way she saw life. She saw the beauty of nature and always saw the best of everyone she met.

She saw life differently than you and I. Figures, budgets and calculations rarely made sense to her. I doubt if she ever had to balance a checkbook, let alone keep up with day-to-day expenses. But the beauty of nature, flowers and fashion she could easily identify with. She loved gardening and always had flourishing flower beds. I guess once I accepted the limitations of her logic and recognized her true strengths, our relationship blossomed, and we complemented each other more each day.

I remember a couple of years ago when preparing for Pop-pop’s 90th birthday party, that’s Bill, her father. Everyone in her family calls him pop-pop. Anyhow, she was put in charge of flower arrangements for the party. I remember driving around the countryside with her collecting wildflowers, greenery and shrubs. There didn’t seem to be an out of bounds on where we would gather, either in ditches, wooded areas, or someone’s private flower garden, it didn’t matter. (She felt flowers were God’s gift and there for the world to enjoy, and she helped with that.) We gathered a wide variety of blossoms and greenery that piled up in the back seat of my car. As we were doing this, I thought to myself that she was a bit out there, but once she started putting the arrangements together, they were quite lovely and everyone at the party complimented her on them, even though they were mostly weeds. But that was just Claire, she could make rags appear like riches. That was the beauty of her.

(Carol and Pop Pop on his 90th Birthday)

For those of you that knew Claire well, know that she battled depression and had many traumas in her life. She was a cancer survivor that had more than one bout with the deadly disease, and she had multiple heart procedures leaving eight stents in heart. These conditions physically zapped her strength. Before all that she lost her father at an early age, and she suffered other traumas early in her life. She lost a 4-month-old daughter Kristen to SIDS and in the last decade she lost her mother and her brother at a pivotal time in her life when she was recovering from her physical illnesses. It was no wonder that she would zone out from time to time. I always knew when the anniversary date of one of these events was near, because of her change of mood and heart, she would text me that she was taking a mental health day, and I knew to leave her be. I would get phone calls from her sister or dad from time to time saying they couldn’t reach her, and I would assure them that she was just down and out right now and would call them later. Medications helped, but it seemed like she could never quite get on a level keel. Many days she would just forget to take her meds all together.

Claire had many good days though. She loved traveling and meeting new people. She took pride in the fact that she once served as a flight attendant for American Airlines. In her lifetime she took trips with her family to several European and African countries, and she traveled many cities throughout the US. She loved to fly, and she didn’t mind driving, either; we could drive straight through from home to Florida or North Carolina in a single day without much fuss. Her dad has a place in Sarasota. She loved going there. She took me kayaking once on Sarasota Bay. She wanted to go to a tiki bar on the bay, nearby she said. Or later, she thought it was nearby. It turned out to be on the other side of the bay. We paddled for several hours, no water, no sunscreen, finally, we ended up on a beach almost to the gulf. We found some shade and rested for a while. Luckily, she talked a boater into giving us a tow back most of the way. Afterwards, she was pretty toasted from the sun. I estimated we paddled more than ten miles. Needless to say, that was our last kayaking excursion.

(Tiki Bar Claire was trying to find)

She also loved Goldens. She cared for many retrievers in her life and talked about them often. I heard about Yankee, Hallie and Honey many times. I think she lost Yankee in a house fire a couple of decades ago along with many of her treasures. I recently heard of one called Sadie. She must have missed that dog as well, because that is the name given to our golden doodle she picked her out of a litter of nine, all huddled together in a barn stall. The puppy came right to her; she looked it in the eye and did the upside-down trick, I guess they do that to check the puppy’s temperament, and that was it. Sadie was the one and she’s been with us ever since.

In her last months Claire had difficulties breathing and sleeping. She thought that some of the stints in her heart had pulled loose, so she scheduled a procedure with her cardiologist and surgeon. They didn’t find any problems with her heart. Her doctor thought it must either be stress, or she was reacting to her new medications. Her primary care doctor had just retired so we found a psychiatrist that specialized in balancing medications. This doctor was down to earth and so she felt she could trust him. He made some adjustments and tried her out on a new sleep medication. Initially, it all worked fine. She was coming out of her shell, her breathing was better, and she started getting solid blocks of sleep. Then, suddenly, she started getting less and less sleep and nothing seemed to work.

I think God felt she had suffered enough and took her in His hands and whisked her away. I pray that she is now working peacefully in Jesus’ Garden and that all her burdens and fears washed away. Amen!

 

In closing, I want to say that it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to have known Claire Ann Baker. She changed my life in many ways and has strengthened my faith in the ways of Jesus. On more than one occasion she reminded me that we should always be working toward the glory of the Lord and not just to ourselves. More than anything this attitude has helped shape my well-being. I’ve always seen myself as a very spiritual man, but she is the one that made it very clear that I needed to do more than to just accept the presence of God. I needed to accept the Holy Trinity and practice Jesus’ teachings and follow His commandments.

For that insight I will always be grateful. She will be forever in my heart and for many of you forever in yours.

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Conversation with Rudy Peckingpaugh on Claire and Sally Noyes Dowling’s Lifelong Friendship

Rudy and Sally were great friends of Claire’s since their college days at Ohio Wesleyan University. Sally and Claire were both members of the Tri Delta sorority. Rudy and Claire’s former husband Bruce were fraternity brothers together there as well. Bruce has stated that Rudy introduced Bruce to Claire, but Rudy says he has no recollection of that meeting.

Apparently, Sally and Claire did almost everything together during that time. After college they both attended flight attendant school together and worked for American Airlines. They both also planned each other’s marriage ceremonies, each being the other’s bridesmaid. They were also pregnant together and wore the same clothing. In the picture shown below, Rudy mentioned they were both wearing the same bathing suit, pregnant sunning on the beach together. Decades later, Rudy mentioned that they even helped plan each other’s divorces together. That shows a tremendous amount of trust in one another. Those long-lasting friendships are rare.

(Sally left – Claire in uniform)

(Sally and Claire sunning on beach)

He also mentioned how impulsive Claire could be. Once there was a time when Claire had the urge for Clam Chowder. They offered to take her to a place nearby, but Claire said no, not here, I want to go to San Francisco for it. So off they went to the the San Francisco docks for Clam Chowder. It must have been when they both worked for American Airlines.

He also talked about the time when Claire’s rental house burned to the ground. The only thing that survived the blaze was a silver box found at the foot of the fireplace with pictures of Bruce and Claire and of Rudy and Sally. Apparently, Claire lost all her treasures and belongings in that fire. Such a tragedy, there was no insurance to recover any losses.

A couple of years ago, I remember a trip Claire took to Toledo, OH to visit Sally for the last time. She was both happy and sullen, happy to see Sally and Rudy again, but sullen because she realized that is would be the last time she would ever see Sally again. Sally Noyes Dowling passed on September 13, 2023. She was 68. Both Claire and Sally took there walk with Jesus very seriously. May they be forever walking with him now working in his garden and showing grace with all they meet. Amen!

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