Carolyn M. Vance

When Carolyn Vance was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer two years ago her goal was to live to be 50. She did not reach her goal, but boy did Carolyn live.

She embraced the role of stay-at-home mother for her two active daughters, coaching basketball and helping with school activities, volunteered as a pharmacist for the St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy, trained the family's rescue dog Happy and planned family trips near and far for her husband Adam and girls Nora, 13, and Lily, 8.

Carolyn, 43, died April 1 at the Hospice of Greater Cincinnati in Anderson Township.

Carolyn was an optimistic, family-focused, faith-filled, joyful woman, and she approached her illness as she had lived her whole life.

"Manifest. That was my word. I wanted to manifest the outcome as much as I could. It made me feel I had power and strength over what was happening," Carolyn said recently.

Her first manifest challenge was regaining strength in her legs for the family's "glamping" vacation in 2024 to Yellowstone National Park. "I would put on my white "manifest" sweatshirt and go to physical therapy and do lunges and squats and get stronger so I would be able to hike and ride horses and canoe. And I did," she said, adding, "It just got better from there."

Last year was a banner year for Carolyn. "When Adam and I were in our early 20s we went to Italy and it was the best five days of my whole life. I knew I wouldn't be able to take my girls when they got older, so we decided to go over spring break," Carolyn said.

Then in July the Vance family headed to Guatemala on a mission trip sponsored by their church, Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. The family and 30 other church members helped build a school and run a Vacation Bible School. At VBS, Carolyn was a magnet for the Guatemala children, leading them in a game of Sharks & Minnows on the soccer field as she yelled out numbers in Spanish.

"Our trip to Guatemala was life changing," she said. "It was such a blessing to be with our family and our church family."

Another life-changing trip was to Madeira, Portugal, where she met up with seven women she had met online through a cancer support group. "They were just magical people," she said, adding, "I had hope to go to Croatia with them this year."

Other trips in 2025 included New Orleans, The Netherlands, Michigan and Lake Erie, where Adam grew up.

"We got to see all this world has to offer - oceans and mountains and volcanoes and ruins - while making new friends and cementing old ones. You don't realize how special it all is until you are staring your mortality in the face," she said.

Carolyn was born Oct. 19, 1982, on Cincinnati's west side and attended Seton High School. She graduated from the University of Toledo in 2007 with a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD).

In her fifth year at UT, she met Adam Vance, who was studying to become an engineer. "We hit it off right away. I liked that he was in engineering because it meant he had his act together, and that he was a PK (preacher's kid) because it meant he had some values and morals," she said.

After college, the couple had a long-distance relationship as each of them pursued careers but never lived farther than two hours apart. Carolyn and Adam were married over Labor Day weekend 2008, and lived in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for two years and then Cincinnati. "I was homesick, I wanted to come home," she said.

Carolyn was a runner and got Adam interested in the sport. They ran two marathons in Columbus, finishing side by side.

She worked as a pharmacist for multiple organizations before her illness forced her to retire.

Carolyn is also survived by her parents, Peggy and Mike Girten, siblings Scott Girten (Amy) Colleen Tedford (Matt), twin sister Sarah Hirsch (Scott) , 12 nieces and nephews and extended family.

Visitation will be held Monday, April 6, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at T. P. White & Sons Funeral Home (2050 Beechmont Ave., Mt. Washington). A Celebration of Life will be held Tuesday, April 7, at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection ELCA (1950 Nagel Rd.) at 10 a.m. followed by a reception.

Donations in Carolyn's honor can be made to Metavivor (www.metavivor.org), an organization that exclusively funds metastatic breast cancer research.