Obituary of Michal Thompson

MICHAL JOAN ISBELL THOMPSON On October 3, 2009 Mrs. Thompson died peacefully at her long-time home, on a blue-sky Saturday morning that called her spirit to depart. In the past few years, she had been contending with the difficulties attendant to Alzheimer?s disease. She was 83, having celebrated her birthday on June 18th. She was a mother of two sons, Peter and Bruce (of Charlotte and Huntersville, respectively) and a grandmother to two granddaughters, Kalle and Sarah, and two grandsons, Trevor and Worth, all of whom survive her. She was the widow of James Wilding Thompson (Jim), who died nearly two decades ago, after nearly 44 years of marriage. Her other closest surviving relatives are her brother David B. Isbell of Chevy Chase, Maryland and his wife Florence; her sister-in-law Suzanne T. Davies of Redding Ridge, Connecticut, and her husband Edward; and her first cousin Caroline Hoisington Darmody, and her husband John, of New South Wales, Australia. Michal was born in New York City, and during the Depression lived in France where her parents worked as teachers and camp counselors. Most of her youth was spent in Connecticut however. She attended Bennington College, then transferred and graduated from Vassar. She and Jim met and married shortly after WWII and moved to Charlotte in 1953. After raising her two boys here, she worked alongside her husband Jim in the family business ? Huskipower, a multi-state distributor of chainsaws and outdoor power equipment that was founded in 1971. She retired from that business in 1991. Michal was an avid tennis player, self-taught artist, and lover of gardening and all things having to do with the outdoors. She was a private person by nature, who cherished her close friends and family, but who decided she preferred staying out of the limelight. She was truly a ?gentlewoman? who never had an unkind word for anyone. Plans for a memorial gathering are incomplete at this time. The family would like to acknowledge the kindnesses and attention of her close neighbors and friends. Additionally, her family is grateful for the wonderful companionship and caregiving of June Megremis, as well as the kind attention and caregiving of Carolyn Davis, Martha Shuford, Lenora Cunningham, Marlene Gregory, and Joyce Day, all of whom were actively assisting Michal during her waning months and years. Memorials may be made to a charity/organization of one?s own choice. In the immortal words of Edna St. Vincent Millay: A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew, A formula, a phrase remains, -- but the best is lost. The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, -- They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve. More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.