If you're reading this...

Final Post

If you’re reading this, I must be dead. I hope I put up a good fight and faced brain cancer with grace and dignity. I’m sure I cried every day and cussed a lot and most likely played the “cancer card” when I wanted extra attention. I know Frank and our girls took good care of me. I apologize for complaining about Frank’s driving. 

I was born on November 9, 1956 to Carol Louise Owen Primo and Robert (Bob) Julius Primo in Lubbock, TX at Methodist Hospital, what is now Providence, where I was treated at the end of my life. I was lucky to be born into a big loving family. I have the distinction of being the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter, a chain that goes back at least five generations and forward two more. 

I’ve lived in Lubbock, Fort Worth, Alief (high school), Huntsville (Sam Houston State University), Lubbock again (Texas Tech University), San Angelo, and Lubbock one more time. Lubbock has always felt like Home.

I began working as soon as I turned 16 and have held numerous jobs. I finished my career as COO of the South Plains Food Bank, retiring in 2024. The job I am most proud of was starting the GRUB Program (now youth leadership) at the SPFB Farm. The job I was best suited for and loved the most was being a stay-at-home mom. 

I was preceded in death by my parents, a brother (Robert Wade Primo), numerous aunts and uncles, and a few cousins. I am survived by my husband, the love of my life Frank Wallace Smith, daughters Courtney Dale Elizabeth Smith (and Sylvanus Shaw) of Brooklyn, NY, Carol Ann Christine Smith (and Harrison Brooks) of Lubbock, grandchildren Evelyn Kilcoe Shaw and Sylvanus Joseph Shaw VI, aka Joe, of Brooklyn, NY, siblings John, Joe, and Kim, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and dear friends. I want to thank Susan Horkey, Melinda Harvey, and the charter members of the Noisy Boys Club (Stephanie Rhode, Debra Castle, Priscilla Ross, and Teresa Heath) for being my support team during my cancer battle. 

Don’t send flowers. Please make a donation to a charity I would support. I have a special fondness for Planned Parenthood (or any women’s reproductive rights group), food justice organizations, and CASA.