Obituary
Lydia Kathryn Wheeler

In a poem penned by Lydia 40 years ago, she wrote that “my soul won’t rest until it tries to find its next perfect surprise.” Lydia’s soul met that perfect surprise on November 20 and she left this life to eternally rest with parents Norman & Kay in their celestial home. Born in 1954, Lydia Kathryn Wheeler became the oldest daughter of Norman & Kay Wheeler graduating Dunn High School as Valedictorian in 1972 then enrolling at UNC-Greensboro to become a Phi Beta Kappa English graduate in 1976. A writer by avocation, Lydia was employed by Wake County Schools as an English teacher serving as English Department Chair, yearbook advisor, and newsletter editor. Also writing short stories and plays, she amused herself and others as a piano player and was for a time the keyboardist for Grand Prix, a Raleigh dance band. As Lydia’s disabilities began to overwhelm her abilities, she worked as a proofreader and transcriber for a court reporting service and provided Computer Assisted Note-taking for Deaf & Hard of Hearing supporting her contention in another poem that “no dream is impossible if it is worthwhile.” Lydia was an animal lover who loved cats most of all. Pretty Kitty, Shrambles, Leo, Redford, and the list goes on! Lydia is survived by her two sisters, Jean Wheeler Allman and Leigh Wheeler Baxley, along with brothers-in-law Steven Allman & Rick Baxley. She was proud of her two nieces Amanda Allman Harwell and Kathryn Allman Farley and their husbands Rhys Harwell and James Farley. She was equally proud of her two nephews Joshua Barnes and Ryan Baxley, and she reveled in being a Great Aunt to Silas Barnes & Willow Harwell. It is Lydia’s wish that memorial tributes be made to Monty’s Home, www.montyshome.org, or Humane Society of the United States, www.humanesociety.org with Memorial service to be arranged at future date. On November 20, Lydia gently passed from this world surrounded by love as her sisters Leigh and Jean held her hands and as “Day by Day” by Robin Lamont played “oh dear Lord, …I pray, to see thee more clearly” and today, Lydia is at peace in that most “perfect surprise.”