Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary
http://hansenmortuary.com
Carolyn Marie Ross was born December 30, 1946, to Louis Joseph Ross and Lillian Gudren Hansen in St. Paul, Minnesota; she was the youngest of three children, joining two older sisters, Rita and Mary.
She spent her early years on the family farm in rural Roberts, Wisconsin. In 1955, the family moved into the family home constructed by her Grandpa Hansen in Hudson, Wisconsin. She attended St. Patrick's School in Hudson and graduated from Hudson High School in 1965. She attended St. Mary's School of Nursing in Rochester, Minnesota and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1968.
Her time at St. Mary's was transformative in ways she could not have dreamed of when she arrived on campus in 1965. She loved the study of nursing, the structure and discipline provided by the Sisters who taught her, and she met roommates and friends with whom she remained close for her entire life. And it was at St. Mary's where she met the love of her life, Dwight Buntrock, a handsome young farmer from Columbia, South Dakota, who was a patient in her care at the Mayo Clinic, having suffered a gun-shot injury that cost him his leg while goose hunting in rural Brown County, South Dakota in the fall of 1966. Dwight is fond of saying that he met his wife in bed. Carolyn and Dwight were married on June 14, 1969 at St. Patrick's in Hudson, Wisconsin.
Carolyn and Dwight made their first home in Aberdeen, South Dakota, later moving to the Buntrock Farm. Carolyn embarked upon her nursing career at Dakota Midland Hospital where she worked in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), which she loved. Carolyn worked at Dakota Midland until 1988 when the hospital merged with St. Luke's Hospital, which became Avera; she worked in the PACU at Avera until 1998. That year she joined the founding team at Dakota Plains Surgical Center, working in the PACU there until her retirement in 2013. In addition to her work in the PACU, Carolyn worked stints as a Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit nurse and a Home-Health Care nurse for St. Luke's. She loved caring for her patients, who were soothed by her calming voice and caring bedside manner. Physicians with whom she worked often noted that Carolyn was the best nurse they had ever worked with.
Carolyn was extremely intelligent, not to mention witty and fun. She loved learning; she read voraciously, and she took every opportunity to further her education by attending nursing conferences and workshops whenever possible. In addition to her formal nursing jobs, Carolyn was the go-to nurse for many people in the Columbia area?she would administer allergy shots to any kid that needed them, and she checked in on her sick neighbors, always happy to provide whatever was needed--anything from a gallon of milk to an enema.
Carolyn's love of nursing was second only to her love of her family, her friends and her faith. She was active in her community, joining St. John's Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Dakota where she taught Sunday School for many years. She served on the boards of the Northern Plains Hospice and the Health Care Plus Federal Credit Union.
Carolyn imbued her children and grandchildren with her love of learning, and she did everything possible to make sure that her kids could pursue their interests and passions, whether it was ballet, debate, music or international travel. If one of the children went to step onto a stage or athletic field, Dwight and her were always in the audience cheering them on. Her beauty, wit and intelligence and genuine interest in others endeared her to everyone she met, and she loved meeting new people and traveling the world. Indeed, she spent her 50th birthday in Tokyo, she and Dwight visited Andrew in Indonesia, and they recently traveled to Spain. She loved bird watching (a Cardinal sighting would make her squeal with joy) and she captured hundreds of photos of the beautiful sunsets outside her front door.
She is survived by her husband, Dwight and her children: Ross (Shane Bateman); Andrew (Renan Talhadas); Heidi (Michael Bandt), her grandchildren: Isabelle Aniece and August Michael, and her sisters: Rita (Jack Johnston) and Mary Kay, as well as many nephews and nieces.
A small service will be held at Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary, 6500 E. Bell Road, Scottsdale, Arizona 85254 on Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 2:00p.m. which will be live-streamed at https://vimeo.com/505476175. A celebration of her life will be held in Columbia, South Dakota in the Spring and details will be forthcoming.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to: South Dakota Public Broadcasting or Northern Plains Hospice/Avera Saint Luke's Hospital. https://joingenerous.com/carolynbuntrock
Greetings may be sent to the family: Dwight Buntrock, 3398 E. Liberty Lane, Gilbert, Arizona 85296. Visit hansenmortuary.com for online condolences.
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