When Carol O’Brien first moved to Atlanta, she was determined to do it right. O’Brien had been a stewardess for Continental Airlines and had fallen in love with the Atlanta airport during her travels. She loved the people, the noise, the hubbub.
So she got a job working as an administrative assistant at Georgia Tech. But she was a little surprised when she realized where her new job would actually be.
“She was bound and determined to get a job right downtown, right in the midst of things,” said her sister, Rita Anderson. “She ended up at Tech instead and I think it’s because she thought Tech was downtown.”
O’Brien had always loved people. She always loved noise. She just didn’t like to make it.
“She was quiet,” Anderson said. “It’s kind of a contrast. I was the blabbermouth and she deferred to me. I’d go on and on and on (trying to solve a problem) and she’d be very quiet and then come up with the answer.”
Carol Jean O’Brien died on July 30, after complications following knee surgery. She was 77. A funeral service will be held at the Catholic Church of St. Ann in Marietta, Ga on Wednesday August 6th at 2:00pm followed by a reception in the church hall at St. Ann’s.
Jerry O’Brien said he’s pretty glad that Carol made that mistake. The two met in the chemistry department at Tech in 1980 and more than 10 years later, they got married.
The duo loved adventure – something Carol had picked up on during her travels as a stewardess. Every year they would try to take a trip and sometimes managed to sneak two in. Once on a trip to Alaska, Jerry and Carol took a side trip in a small plane. Carol was squeezing the life out of Jerry’s hand the whole time. Only after did he find out that his wife, the former stewardess, was deathly scared of small planes.
When O’Brien’s knee started to give out, those yearly trips became rarer.
“She suffered tremendously in her walk and her knee was getting out of shape and she barely complained,” Anderson said. “But if you said, ‘Let’s go someplace,’ off she would go. She was a silent sufferer and I admire that about her, because most people suffer out loud.”
Even when O’Brien was hospitalized and in so much pain that just moving would elicit screams, she tried her best not to let anyone know. O’Brien and Anderson were raised in Catholic school and Anderson said it was that training that gave O’Brien strength.
“She had such a strong faith and I think she relied on that faith to get her through these times,” Anderson said. “The hospital said she had suffered more pain than any human being had a right to suffer. And I think that her belief in God got her through that.”
In addition to her husband and sister, O’Brien is survived by sister Kathy Plummer (Richard), step sons, Jim O’Brien (Jill) and Andy O’Brien (Miranda), and several nieces and nephews.
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