KINGSTON — There’s a reason Emily Hearn Maier of Tacoma chose to sing “For Good,” from the musical “Wicked,” at the memorial service for her friend Heather Beckwith Carroll on Oct. 18 at Bayside Community Church in Kingston.
They were good friends since age 5, and as their families’ paths diverged their friendship remained strong. When they were 9, the Hearns moved to Shelton and the Beckwiths remained in Suquamish. When the girls visited each other, “we would intentionally leave stuff so we would have to see each other again,” Maier said.
Maier matured into a tomboy, Carroll into a “girly girl” who insisted on doing makeovers on her friend during visits.
“She was the most fun person to be around,” Maier said. “She would be the life of the party.”
Then, young adulthood. Maier’s husband’s service in the Marines took the couple to California; Carroll’s family moved to Las Vegas, where Heather met and married and became a mom. The friends visited each other there when Carroll was six months pregnant. “She was so happy she was going to have a baby,” Maier said.
The years, and life, went on. The Maiers moved to Tacoma, the Carrolls moved to Hollister, Calif. The two regularly kept in touch via social media, their friendship undiminished by distance and time.
“She was a big influence on my life,” Maier said.
So when Carroll’s friends and family gather at Bayside to remember the young wife and mother, Maier and Maier’s mom will join together in a musical tribute.
“It’s a song about two friends who never know if they are going to see each other again, and how much impact they had on each other’s lives,” Maier said.
“It well may be
That we will never meet again
in this lifetime.
So let me say before we part
so much of me
is made from what I learned from you.
You’ll be with me
like a handprint on my heart
and now whatever way our stories end,
I know you have re-written mine
by being my friend.”
Maier said, “We’re all going to miss her. She was an amazing woman.”
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