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\nCELEBRATING THE LONG & LOVELY LIFE OF BHAKTIN CONSTANCE CARTER by Raga Devi Dasi aka Robin Carter Cannon
\nIn my and my brother’s youth, our mom was the first and best driver, so she took us all over the place– to peace marches and to New York City’s Living Theater. She also, when I was a bit older, went with us to a Bob Marley concert that my brother Hladini Shakti dasa bought tickets for us three to attend. That’s how hip our mom always was. <\/p>\n
Before this, I went to several outdoor shows at Central Park with mom to see folks like the incredible South African singer Miriam Makeba, whose music changed my life & who I still listen to occasionally! Aside from Miriam, what mom played on our home turntable was a lot of Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone, Carmen McCrae, Carole King’s Tapestry album, and the Blood Sweat & Tears song we all loved so much: (You Make Me So Very Happy). In deed I could relate to this because my mom was always making me so very happy.<\/p>\n
Another treat mom participated in was when she MC-ed my 8th grade graduation ceremony at the private Woodward School I was attending. Being a Master of Ceremony is always a big deal, especially when you’re wearing authentic bright, white pearls contrasting your dark skin and maybe a slinky black dress to accompany it; but this 1969 show was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and it starred the incredibly popular comedian Flip Wilson, (who I still often watch on YouTube). It also had folk singer Arlo Guthrie, (the son of Woody Guthrie) and the soul singer Novella Nelson. <\/p>\n
Changing subjects a moment, I’ll never forget that one year as a child when I went trick or treating for Halloween, mom dressed me up like an ancient Pharaoh, buying me a very large gold and blue Pharaoh-looking mask. “How did my mom get so cool & hip?” I had to wonder again. But mom had a background of success even way before I was born.<\/p>\n
Constance or Connie Carter was born in Washington Heights New York in 1924. Her own mom had died early, when she was only 13, but at the ages of 24 and 25 mom ac-complished winning two big NYC beauty pageants. These were very prestigious contests because one was judged by the famous cosmetician Estee Lauder, and the other was judged by one of Hollywood’s Westmore brothers. For employment, mom often did legal secretarial work, and one year she even worked at New York University. This was be-fore she went back to school to earn a B.S. in Sociology. But the job mom retired from was a management one at Off Track Betting, which thankfully gave her a good pension. <\/p>\n
Immediately after retirement from this full-time job, at age 65, mom noticed a nearby entertainment outfit that offered help breaking into acting. She was still looking quite young at the time, & they gave all their clients glossies and business cards, and taught them all the ropes of breaking into the business by auditioning for acting and extra work in student and theatrically-released films. Always brave and adventurous, mom hustled into this field like the natural dancer she’d always been. <\/p>\n
Long before all this, as a very involved, interested and personal parent, when David, who was not yet Hladini Shakti Dasa, took interest in TM or transcendental meditation, mom drove and accompanied the two of us to meet the giggling guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. That day, she and I both got initiated, though I was only 12. Being a child, I got what was called a walking mantra, but my mom, who was now 45, got the full-fledged TM initiation and did this meditation faithfully for many years. <\/p>\n
After her faithful TM stint, mom finally got ready to shift into bhakti, with a little loving persuasive pressure from Hladini Shakti Das and I, Raga Devi Dasi, who’d now been prac-ticing bhakti for decades. We’d both taken initiation from our respective gurus (him from Tamal Krishna Goswami & me from Bhakti Tirtha Swami). Mom meanwhile had person-ally gone to the Brooklyn temple many times. She’d go to drop one of us off, or drop off something needed by Hladini, who by now was the Brooklyn temple Vice President. <\/p>\n
Mom of course always wore & admired the flower garlands we’d frequently give her, & she always raved about their look & fragrance. Then, lo and behold, mom visited me in Los Angeles, & came to the temple when I moved to L.A. She even danced in a kirtan & raved about the experience. She liked L.A., but ultimately chose to retire & move from N.Y. to South Fl., which was a lot closer to Jamaica, W.I., where both her parents were born. <\/p>\n
Long story short, I eventually moved from St. Louis (the town I moved to after L.A.) to Florida to be closer to my mom, but as she approached 98, we arranged to move her to a well-run ALF in Gainesville, the town where my hubby Yamaraja Das & I still live. I was of course dumb and hopeful enough to think mom and I would hang out just about for-ever here, since I could now see her twice a week. But then suddenly one day mom had a choking incident at the ALF she was staying. Fortunately, she was saved by a Heim-lick maneuver performed by the nurse practitioner who owned it, Rhonda Boggi. But because the episode had obstructed mom’s breathing, she lived for only a few more days. <\/p>\n
Aside from my dad’s prostate cancer death in 1994, this is the most heart-breaking thing I’ve ever experienced. But my hubby and I were there with my mom till the very end, armed with the transcendental “Going back to Godhead box,” a maha flower garland, tilak, holy water, Srila Prabhupada chanting non-stop and our warm and tender presence. We also had cell phones we could use to call and connect mom to other loved ones, like her grandkids & great grands. Having birthed & raised two committed devotee children, I think the Vedas would say and agree that our mom had a very successful and glorious life! As we hoped, she even took up some bhakti reading & the chanting of Hare Krishna herself, near the end of her life. All glories to Guru and Gauranga! All glories to the sorely-missed Bhaktin Constance Valerie Melbourne Carter. (1924 – 2022) Hari Haribol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CELEBRATING THE LONG & LOVELY LIFE OF BHAKTIN CONSTANCE CARTER by Raga Devi Dasi aka Robin Carter Cannon In my and my brother’s youth, our mom was the first and best driver, so she took us all over the place– to peace marches and to New York City’s Living Theater. She also, when I was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104876,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104875\/revisions\/104876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}