Carol Louise Hoisington Sweet

Carol Hoisington Sweet, nee Carol Louise Hoisington was born on January 13, 1934 and died
on November 3, 2018. Carol was born to parents Louie and Helen Hoisington in Concord, MA,
living there for about eight years. At that time, the family moved to a farm in Hopkinton, MA for
two years. After living in Framingham, MA for a short time, the family bought a beautiful home
in Southborough, MA sometime in 1942 and stayed there until 1991. Her sisters, Evelyn and
Kate, and her brother, Leland, joined Carol, rounding out the family of six.
Carol grew up attending school, the First Community Church, and the 4-H in Southborough,
where she also liked to sew and study the violin. Carol liked to play dolls with her sisters in a
huge clump of lilac trees during the summer. The siblings would also climb and swing on the
clothesline posts, the front yard swing, and use the tree for look out practice. Look out practice
pertained to Carols father Louie being an air-raid warden during the Second World War. Air-raid
sirens sounded quite often, but in order to keep the Hoisington children from being too afraid
sitting in the dark, their mother would herd them into the pantry, where there were no windows
and the lights could be kept on, reward them with a cookie and wait for the "all out" to sound.
One lucky child got the privilege of sitting on the big flour pail! All the children had many
household chores, cleaning, ironing, weeding, washing and hanging clothes, harvesting, and
canning the garden produce. The children also worked with their father picking apples, peaches,
and pears in the orchards. When chores were done, their father would take them for a swim in the
reservoir. Occasionally, the family would take weekend trips to Cape Cod.
Carol was a champion berry picker because she never ate any of the berries she picked. When
she was old enough, she got to sell berries for $.50 a quart and was an expert sales person.
During one berry-picking trip, she fell and cut her hand very badly. Her father tried to rush her to
the hospital, but the air-raid sirens, and a stopped train delayed them in every town. After
explaining their rush, Carol was admitted to the hospital, requiring surgery and many days of
recovery. She received many presents though. So many, that her mother suggested she might
share one of her dolls with her sister, Evelyn. Evelyn received one of the dolls, and though
Carols hand recovered, she never got over having to share one of her gifts with her sister.
Carol enjoyed sledding, skiing, and ice-skating in the yard and on the pond across the street. She
was very active in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, eventually teaching younger
students. She enjoyed Christmas Caroling with the youth group, no matter how cold and snowy
those New England winters were, with the reward of hot chocolate at the church to end the
evening. Family holidays were spent happily with extended family, though no one has ever found
out who put the curlers in the oven. Carol was determined to go to college and worked very hard
to be able to go to Wingate College in North Carolina and worked summers at the Grafton Mental
Hospital.
It was at Wingate that Carol met David Sweet. It was immediately clear that the two were meant
for each other. They married at the very young ages of 18 and 19 on October 24, 1953. Carol
wore a pink skirt and matching jacket, Dad wore a borrowed suit, and the wedding had three in
attendance- the pastor, his wife, and a cat that witnessed the ceremony from the windowsill.
Carol and David made their way from North Carolina, to Macon, Georgia, to Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and finally settled in Maryland. Carol and David had three children along the way,
David, Paul, and Terry.
Carol kept busy raising her children and supplementing the family income first by working at a
bank, in retail and later doing secretarial work for several small companies and the University of
Maryland in the adult education department. She also enjoyed substitute teaching in several local
elementary schools. However, Carols main and most beloved job was always supporting her
husband, David in his demanding career with the NSA, his love of trains (which she grew to love
as well), and travelling together to various train conventions. She enjoyed crocheting and made
baby blankets for quite a large number of little ones. She decorated lovely cakes for family and
friends, and enjoyed crafting and crossword puzzles. Carol remained very active in her local
churches in Berwin, Beltsville, and Hagerstown, MD, where she taught Sunday School, worked
with the youth group, and tried her very best to ignore the trouble her children would make during
church services. Carol and David made the most of very little through most of their lives. Carol
figured out how to stretch a dollar, be creative with bill paying, make the spam and mac and
cheese last, cut coupons, and save RC bottle caps in order to take the kids to a local amusement
park. She never left any of her children at college without making their beds for them before
saying goodbye. Though she would claim no musical ability of her own, she proudly watched
many concerts, operas, musicals, recitals, and church services to support her children and later her
grandchildren.
Carol and David enjoyed time with their three grandchildren, David, Jenna, and Alyssa, taking
them on many local trips to see trains, miniature horses, crayon factories, and Christmas Village
to name a few. She was blessed to be able to see her grandchildren graduate from several
different schools, marry, perform, and start a business. She lived to meet three great-grandsons, a
great grand-daughter, and to hear the news that a fifth great-grandchild is on the way.
Carol looked like her mother, shared her fathers quiet spirit and gentle sense of humor, enjoyed
the company of her siblings, reveled in the high-spirited nature of her children, doted on her
grandchildren, and has waited with deep anticipation to be reunited with her husband, David. Her
sisters Evelyn Till and Kate Sullivan and her brother and sister-in-law, Leland and Bonnie
Hoisington, survive her. She is also survived by her son David L. Sweet and his wife Becky, her
son Paul Sweet and his wife Josephine, and her daughter, Terry Sweet Bouma, as well as her
grandchildren, David F. Sweet, Jenna Mamman, Muhammed Mamman, and Alyssa Bouma, her
great-grandchildren, and many beloved nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her
parents, Louie and Helen, her brother-in-laws Jim Till and Donald Sullivan, and her husband of
nearly 54 years, David R. Sweet.