Carol Anaruma

Anaruma, Carol Ann (Flanagan) ,  passed peacefully among family and friends at Hosparus in the Norton Hospital complex downtown on Saturday, January 23, just after noon following a long battle with cancer.  She was an intelligent, attractive, and disarmingly engaging woman of 72 who wanted to be remembered as a "Daughter, Wife and Mother."  She was born on September 21, 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Bond Hill. She moved to Louisville in 1974, and by 1987 had begun working as a part-time billing clerk at what was then Brooklawn Treatment Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility for youth, but was soon promoted to full-time Business Office Manager. In 1991, when the agency's named was changed to Brooklawn Child and Family Services and its mission redefined to a youth psychiatric residential treatment center, she was promoted to Director of Administrative Services.

Carol greatly enjoyed spending time with the children, including volunteering as a math tutor. Her motto for both kids and staff alike: "Don't leave before the miracle happens." She retired from the agency, now known as Uspiritus, in 2011 as the then-current longest-tenured employee. Carol also was very proud of her 32-years of faithful membership in Alcoholics Anonymous, where she helped and was helped by many women and other friends in the community. She wrote that she wanted to be remembered for her "love and devotion to AA."

She is survived by her mother, Alberta Flanagan, of Cincinnati, Ohio, her sister, Sharon Kuebler and her husband, John, and her son, 'Jimmy.'