Resident Profile: Mrs. Carol A. Miller

Born in 1940, Carol Miller has lived all her life on the south side of Milwaukee.  She remembers how she and her girlhood friends were able to roller-skate, play catch or tennis, right in the open street.  Their stomping ground was on South 15th Place between Lincoln and Windlake Avenues.  With a hint of sadness Carol remarks on how that sort of thing would not really be possible today, due to traffic and other neighborhood factors.

Carol lived in her family's south side home with her mother, Eleanore, her father, Charles, her grandparents, and her brother, Kenneth.  Her twin brother Adam was lost in childbirth.  She recalls how her grandfather, Larry, built an addition on to the home so the family could stay together.  He also converted a barn on the property into a playhouse for Carol and her friends.  He built a cabinet and little hangers so the girls could hang up their doll's clothes.  Carol remembers how she and her friends liked to dress up their favorite dolls and wheel them around the neighborhood in baby buggies.

Carol attended Pulaski High School, where she enjoyed playing clarinet and saxophone in the school band.  At sporting events she was also a majorette.  When not in school, Carol still found time to work part-time at Woolworth's on 13th and Lincoln.

After high school, Carol went to work as a secretary at the Lincoln State Bank.  A couple doors away, a man named Arnie worked in a flower shop.  He would stop in and chat with Carol.  Romance blossomed, and  Carol and Arnie were married on June 5, 1965.  Carol and Arnie opened their own flower shop in May of 1966. Carol managed the flower shop while Arnie made the floral arrangements.

Carol and Arnie had two sons, Eddie and Larry.  She has three grandchildren, Andrea, Nick, and Peter. 

Eddie lives a few blocks away from Wilson Commons.  Carol recalls how she and Arnie used to drive by Wilson Commons as it was being built.  After Arnie passed on September 12, 2004, Eddie and Carol checked out the Chopin House at Wilson Commons.  Carol still lived above the flower shop, but she was very attracted to the independent and social lifestyle Wilson Commons offered.  She moved in on February  1, 2005.

"I love it here!" says Carol. "It's like a nice, friendly neighborhood."  Carol tells how the west wing of the second floor of the Chopin House held their own New Year's eve party.  She said other floors have their own parties too, throughout the year.  Carol loves to read, and she spends a lot of quality time in the facility's library. 

Carol concludes by remarking how well the property is maintained and the congeniality and kindness of the other residents.  "If you're lonely, someone's always here to give you a hug." says Carol.