My Visit with Pat Carroll--Our 500th Post!

Written by Carrie Galeski
Visiting with Pat Carroll was the cherry on the sundae during my recent trip to New England. It was a fun trip, visiting friends in Nantucket, playing lots of golf, and also catching up with a favorite cousin in Connecticut. I can’t believe it, but I finally got my fill of lobster on this trip!

It’s always fun spending time with Pat, and this visit was no exception. She had just returned from spending a month in England and was a bit tired. She said the trip to England had been good medicine for her, giving her time to both relax and reflect.

It‘s been a very hard summer for Pat in that she had to face the death of her son, Sean, in August. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 56. Pat’s daughters, Tara and Kerry, were with her during this arduous time, along with her granddaughter, Evan, whom Pat adores.

Pat is writing her autobiography and has been for the past year or so. I can’t wait to read it. As always, Pat has been busy. She still goes out to LA to visit her girls, and is doing voiceovers for Disney, along with any good parts that happen her way.

I hope you got to see the movie Freedom Writers with Hillary Swank. Pat played a wonderful role in this true story, Miep Gies, one of the Dutch citizens who, earlier in her life, had helped to hid Anne Frank and her family in the Secret Annex. Pat is very proud of the film. I was in California several years ago when she was filming FW, and she was so excited about the part then. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth your time.

Some of the time we spent reminiscing about her time at Barksdale. She speaks lovingly of Pete, Nancy and Muriel, Bruce and Phil (whom she met while doing Grace and Glorie with Theatre IV), and all the friends she made in both Hanover and Richmond.

It’s hard to believe, but it has been more than twenty years since I first became friends with Pat. She was doing Nunsense at the Tavern for the first time, and Pete urged me to go in to see her one morning. Pat was sitting at the infamous “kitchen table” having coffee. She asked me to join her, and…twenty plus years later, I count her as a dear friend who has brightened my life ever so much.

She asked that I give her very best wishes to her many friends in this area.

--Carrie Galeski, former Barksdale Trustee, Barksdale Leadership Award winner 2006