TOPSFIELD — Loved ones of Carolyn Sanger are remembering the mother of four as a “beautiful person and dear friend,” and planning a celebration of life ahead of what would have been her 50th birthday.
“Every time you engaged with Carrie Sanger, it was like nobody else mattered,” said family friend and neighbor Tim Paoli. “She was very authentic in a world where everybody’s fake or trying to be something they’re not. She was as real as they came because she wore her heart on her sleeve.”
Sanger, 49, was visiting Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Sutton on Wednesday with her brother, his family and three of her children when she fell 50-70 feet to her death.
“There was no cell phone in Carrie’s hand. It wasn’t an act where this could have been prevented,” Paoli said.
Sanger would have turned 50 on May 24 and was planning to have a large party. In honor of that wish, a large celebration of life will be held on May 21, though a location is yet to be determined, Paoli said.
Paoli and his wife started a GoFundMe.com fundraiser to help support Sanger’s husband Mike, a combat veteran, and their four children who he called “incredibly resilient.”
As of Monday afternoon, more than $157,000 had been donated of a $190,000 goal that was bumped up after it passed the original goal of $120,000.
Sanger’s death came less than a month before the grand opening of her new business in Topsfield, Balanced Body.
She had left her 30-year career as an oncology nurse to open the new wellness center. Sanger became a licensed massage therapist through the Spirit Wellness Institute in Salem and had also obtained her Reiki Master certificate.
“Carrie was the definition of a working mother who was always there for her children, who would always volunteer for a carpool, who would ask for assistance when she needed it,” Paoli said. “We’re going to need to help, and it’s going to allow for Mike to best be able to parent these beautiful children without maybe so much stress.”
Visit www.gofundme.com/f/community-support-for-the-sanger-family to donate to the GoFundMe.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com