Carol Mae Hubbard Wood of Uehling, NE; formerly of Delaware, Avon, and Lakewood, OH died Sat Sept 30, 2023 at 2:45 AM at Nye Legacy in Fremont, NE.
Carol was born March 3, 1934, the second child of Lee Hubbard and Evelyn (Haines) Hubbard, in an apartment over a bar in Avon, Ohio, her father's hometown. Her best memories were of the truck farm her father had, only 7 acres, near Avon, where he grew tomatoes, strawberries, cauliflower, squash and other produce. When her parents divorced in 1947, Carol went to live in her mother's hometown, Lakewood, Ohio, graduating from Lakewood High School in 1952. Her love of plants caused her to select a botany major at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, where she worked her way through by cafeteria and waitressing work, graduating in 1956. She returned to the Cleveland area and lived with her sister Connie and her family while working at a library until she found a job at University Hospital. She began working there in a lab that did Muscular Dystrophy research starting in about 1957. Later that year, she met Van E. Wood, a graduate student at Case Institute of Technology, who was viewing the apartment she was planning to move out of. They were married on June 7, 1958 in Detroit Avenue Methodist Church, Lakewood, Ohio. She continued to work in the lab while Van completed his doctoral degree. They moved to Columbus, Ohio, when Van took a position at Battelle Memorial Institute in 1960. After renting a small house in Columbus, the couple purchased a house on Section Line Road in Concord Township, Delaware County, where they lived for the next 55 years. The 1-acre rural property allowed Carol to pursue her love of gardening and researching all the various wild plants she could find, such as moss, lichens, mushrooms, grasses, ferns, and sedges; she looked at many under her own microscope.
Carol used her time as a stay-at-home mom to do embroidery, learn painting, drawing, and how to cook by watching ''The French Chef'' on TV. She was wonderful at cooking and baking, some memorable recipes being creamed onions, brioche coffee cakes on Christmas Day, and bread, rolls, cookies and other snacks with afternoon tea after school nearly every day. For several years she was a library volunteer at Ostrander Elementary School; she also had a job tutoring elementary students at Ostrander for 4 or 5 years. She took courses towards an MLS degree at one point.
Carol and Van both enjoyed bird-watching, butterflies, and dragonflies. In about 1976, they got interested in genealogy, a hobby that Van pursued more as he got older. Van Wood died on May 19, 2017. By this time, Carol was suffering from dementia and unable to live alone, so she moved Uehling, NE, living with her daughter, Susan Wood, till August 2022, eventually going to Edgewood Vista Memory Care Assisted Living in Fremont till August 2023, when an injury sent her to long-term care at Nye Legacy in Fremont.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Lee Hubbard and Evelyn Hubbard, husband Van Wood, sister Colleen (2021), brothers-in-law, Chet Lakomski and Chauncey Wood, and to mention a few really important people to her, her grandmother, Annabelle Haines (1955) and her grandfather, Harry Hubbard (1966), as well as her aunt and uncle, Bertha (Sis) and Elton Wernert.
Carol is survived by her daughters, Susan Wood, Uehling, NE and Heather (Don) Drinkwater, Schenectady, NY; granddaughter, Ruth Drinkwater, Riverhead, NY; sister, Constance Lakomski, Bay Village, OH; sister-in-law, Sarah Wood, Scottsdale, AZ; nieces and nephew Laurel Toth, Olmstead Falls, OH; Joanne Lakomski, Yellow Springs, OH; Robert (Lisa) Lakomski, Newton, MA; Dawn Stearns, Duluth, MN; Stephanie Wood, Massachusetts; and Jennifer Wood, California, several great-nieces and nephew, cousins, and friends (especially those she made at Edgewood Vista during the past two years), best friend, Nancy(Carl) Snyder, Indianapolis, IN; and her cat pals, Ginger, Hazel, and Stripey.
Memorials may be made to the National Audubon Society, Midland University Heritage Arboretum, or Catz Angels of Fremont, NE.
Online guestbook at www.Ludvigsenmortuary.com
Condolences(1)
Robert and Sherry Hubbard
TUCSON, AZ Tuesday, October 10, 2023 I wish I could have known this cousin and her sisters better. But Carol and I shared a common interest in family history and corresponded frequently sharing information liberally. We did get to spend a few good hours with Carol and Van on the occasion of our Aunt Bertha "Sis" Wernert's 100th birthday. We all owe the late Sis Wernert a great deal for keeping in touch with Carol's mother Evelyn Haines and not cutting my Hubbard branch off from Carol's branch as other Hubbard's did. Carol will be missed by all that knew her.