Carol Ann (Faulkner) Floyd Obituary (1935

Our beloved Matriarch, Mother, Grandmother, Sister, Friend, Carol Ann (Faulkner) Floyd, 86, of West Jordan, Utah, returned to our Heavenly Father on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2021, at 6:47 p.m., in Garden Grove, California while visiting her son and grandchildren for the holidays. She passed unexpectedly from a minor infection that turned septic. Carol arrived in California just six days prior to her death. Her passing came with such heartache and disbelief especially Christmas Eve when Carol and her family were so excited and joyfully looking forward to spending it together. She was our “Christmas Gramma”, known for making “Christmas Eve” special, magical by keeping the mystic, from the standpoint of a child, alive for us all. Just walking in her door, the warmth and magic surrounded us pulling us into the front room with the brightly adorned Christmas tree, home fully decorated, and beautifully wrapped gifts all chosen uniquely for each family member. Her Christmas Eve agenda always included entertainment, singing, and fun. The Christmas dinner warming in the kitchen made you want to sneak one of her homemade hot rolls. She loved children and was in the process of writing a children’s book for her great-grandchildren. We all knew that Christmas Eve was Gramma Carol’s specialty. Why, we ask, “if before she was born did she pick this day to pass?” Our answer came in a resounding, “forever we will remember Gramma Carol on Christmas Eve and make it as special as she did for generations to come keeping good care of each other and keeping the family together in her absence. A grand plan indeed. Carol was born July 6, 1935, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Charles Huston Faulkner and Dortha Taylor. She had nine brothers and one sister. She is survived by three children: Robert (Kathy) Green, Utah; Susan Huschle, Colorado; C. James Mecham, California; 19 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren; one sister, Mona Hewlett, Utah; one brother, Hugh Faulkner, Idaho. She was preceded in death by two sons, Terry Green, Jeff Green; her husband, Bill Floyd; her parents and brothers, Charles, Robert, Billy, Franklin, Merrill, Doug, Carl, and Glade. Services will be held at 1:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. Pacific), Saturday, April 9, 2022, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Spanish Fork Stake Center, 1006 E. 200 S., Spanish Fork, Utah 84660. She will be laid to rest the day before in a private family service at the gravesite. Grave dedication will be performed following her services on April 9, 2022. To reach the family please leave a message on 562-501-5958. Carol was first married to Paul L. Green in Salt Lake City, Utah; they had four children: Robert, Susan, Terry, and Jeff Green. They later divorced. She eventually met and married Voyl Mecham. They had one son, Clyde James Mecham. They later divorced and she married William (Bill) Floyd who died in 1989. She attended East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah and The LDS Business College. She was beautiful, extremely popular, funny, talented, creative, feisty, outgoing and had many, many friends throughout her life. She also loved words, poetry, reading and writing poetry. She is known for writing the poem, “The Old Rock House” about her Grandparents in Loa, Utah. An avid subscriber to the “Readers Digest” so she could read and memorize their monthly vocabulary list and definitions. She was a believer that the bigger your vocabulary, the smarter one was. Carol loved to sing. While married to Voyl, she sometimes sang in his supper club, “The Granite Club” on Highland Drive in SLC. She was always singing to her young children and grandchildren. She sang quite well, especially Patsy Cline songs. Carol came from a faithful family whom she highly respected and her Grandparents Lorenzo and Jennie Taylor of Loa, Utah, where she spent some summers. At age nine, while with them in a church meeting, she realized they were friends on a first name basis with the Prophet, David O’Mckay. She was humbled and in awe of her grandparents. She thought they must be really special, like angels. A long-time faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She served many positions throughout her life and was always a great influence on her family and friends. The lessons she taught and delivered in church were earnestly prepared days prior with great dedication and inspiration from the Lord and his teachings. Carol was only 4’11”, and what she lacked in height, she made up in might! She was sharp, quick witted, and could read people and any situation extremely well. She took to task immediately anyone trying to pull one over on her. She never took any guff. She never took a backseat to what’s right and stood up for herself immediately. Always straightforward and to the point! Instinctively and strategically, she pursued some unlikely careers, mainly because they paid higher than most jobs; and of course, she preferred not starting at the bottom. Equipped with a strong “I can do anything I put my mind to” attitude she went from childcare to supervisor at Parker Packing in Utah. From there she found out the coal mines were hiring and paid way better than her current job, so she headed to Southern Utah. Woe be anyone or any business who underestimated 4’11” Carol. A force to be reckoned with. Including Peabody Mines who (at first) weren’t going to pay her equal pay to that of men when she applied for a job. She immediately went toe to toe with them. Fortunately for all, Carol had a way of moving things quickly to resolution and making great friends along the way and on the other end. She received equal pay on her first day and became a valued and loved employee, miner, of Deer Creek Peabody Coal Mine in Utah. She had many fun stories to tell throughout her life about those days in the mines. Standing up for herself was but one side of Carol who had an amazing ability to make many friends from her childhood till she passed. Her sister said that as a young woman Carol was very popular and always had a flock of friends around her. Carol was always the leader and everyone else were the followers. She also had quite the sense of humor, always making people laugh, setting up fun loving practical jokes on her own family is something she excelled at. Her creatively written scripts, which she made into home videos, included family members and grandchildren playing these roles. The videos were exaggerated themes as a way of teasing one or more of her adult children. Apparently, she needed a long-lasting outlet to express them. These are funny videos that will be kept for the family to enjoy and share forever. Her humor and talent were passed down as testified in some “fun” revenge videos. All were a hoot! Her imagination was limitless and always in the pursuit of catching people off guard with her humor. She created a lot of fun times. At age 54, Carol was looking for work and prayed for a job that would sustain her the rest of her life. That prayer was answered shortly after as she started the best career of her life that lasted 14 years and eventually earned a six-figure salary as a Health Plan Consultant. Her job was selling insurance in California to seniors through Secure Horizons and PacifiCare. This was a perfect fit for her as she loved talking, relating to people and seniors. At first her much younger peers gave her negative vibes due to her age (they were much younger), and she wasn’t thrilled working for a much younger boss. Everything changed once they realized she was beating them every week in sales and they found themselves having to scurry to catch up, with resentment. You see, Carol quickly sized up how many sales she needed to make to make the kind of money she wanted to bring in. When she started there their sales quota was about 26 a week, attitudes quickly changed as her peers watched her numbers surpass theirs every week. Soon everyone wanted to be on Carol’s team. In the end Carol sold over 150 - 178 plans per week and was consistently winning most all the top sales awards leading to her earning Top Salesperson year after year winning top prizes of all expenses paid trips for two to Hawaii, the Caribbean, etc., which she took her adult children to, and her team were also included. Award ceremony after another she was hailed as top salesperson along with her team. Despite the competition that Carol brought, she made the work environment fun. Everyone liked her and wanted to be her friend. She motivated people and their sales and income rose. Her warm, genuine personality, highly experienced in making friends and being a support won them over. About two years into retirement, at age 68, out of the blue a VP of the Northern California territory for Scan Healthcare offered her a job. He had heard how she transformed the sales department at Secure Horizons helping make them a leader in the business. He said he needed help with his Northern District and her name came in on top every time. Caught totally off guard; Carol wasn’t looking for a job, but the perks and benefits were too good to pass up, especially at her age. So, she took the position for two years and enjoyed all the perks offered. She was a huge support and inspiration not only to her family, but also to her friends, neighbors, co-workers, and church members. Many of the cards received reflect Carol’s imprint of love, selfless support and inspiration to them. She, in turn, received so much from them. So many people enriched her life. She truly loved those she knew, those she served with, her family, along with the Lord. Family was a top priority; Carol was a devoted Mother and adored her grandchildren. They were a very important part of her life and they all loved and appreciated her. For years she rotated being a live-in babysitter for her sons where she customized learning experiences for her grandchildren and took them to the library to check out books, track how many books they read and helped them love reading. Many times, she babysat all the grandchildren at one time making it so much more fun for all the cousins to be together. As her grandchildren grew older, she became their confidant, friend, religious guide, inspiration, and they sought her wisdom. She could see their strengths as well as their doubts and helped guide them to overcome obstacles and to see what she saw in them. She was so very proud of all her grandchildren. Carol lived a full life with highs, lows, obstacles, hardships, health challenges, great times, great jobs, great bosses, great friends and church friends, great children, siblings, and grandchildren. So many things about Carol aren’t related here. She related to the song Elvis Presley sang, “My Way” .... Sometimes she bit off more than she could chew, most of the time she grew. Her common sense, friendliness, and selflessness made for a great friend, Mother, Grandmother, and inspiration. Perhaps it was her wisdom and drive that drew us all in. She lived her motto, “If you think you can, you can!” She also lived her life, “My Way”, her way to the end. Dear Carol, Mother, Sister, Aunt, Grandmother, Friend, you are so loved, sorely missed, and irreplaceable. God Be With You Till We Meet Again Condolences may be expressed at www.bergmortuary.com.