Carol Harr spent 29 years in her Centennial home, raising her daughters, then sharing the house with a roommate before deciding to sell it last year to become a full-time volunteer.
She sold nearly all her furniture and most of her possessions. Her dining-room set and a few other things wait in a small storage unit.
Everything else fits in her car, which has taken her to Florida, Georgia and back to Colorado. So far, she has volunteered for the social-justice advocacy group Catholic Worker, and a handful of farmers who are members of World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms, including her current WWOOF posting in Denver.
“I’m not a thing person; I’m a memory person,” said Harr, 64, who is deeply tanned, with muscular arms and legs and the honeyed drawl of a Georgia native.
As an itinerant volunteer, Harr departs from the typical schedule for a new retiree. Instead of volunteering for a few hours a week, Harr became a full-time grass-roots philanthropist, throwing herself into gardening as her new vocation.
Four years ago, Harr retired from her job with the state labor department, where she taught education workshops to employees whose jobs had been outsourced. It was rewarding work, but she had had an epiphany five years earlier, when one of her daughters gave birth to a baby girl who died after less than a day.
“It was a real awakening for me,” she said.
“I’d been living my life for the future, spending my time cleaning up from last week, and getting ready for next week. I took an ecumenical class called ‘ Just Faith,’ about social justice, and began learning about living in community.”
The first thing she did was cut down to a 32-hour week and start doing what she loved. Mostly, that was gardening. She spent a year taking inventory of her possessions and clearing out the house.
“I’d kept every card I’d ever gotten, and all of my kids’ schoolwork,” Harr said.
“I boxed it up, but the kids didn’t want anything. So I picked out some special stuff for each daughter, and put it in one box. I’d had eight or nine boxes to start with. Then I found creative ways to donate stuff. I had a T-shirt for everywhere I’ve ever been. I must’ve had 200. So I took a picture of every shirt, and gave them all to a Catholic Worker house where they make rag rugs from T-shirts. It felt so good for them to be used. I sold almost everything else on Craigslist.”
The winnowed remains included some Christmas decorations, a dining- room set and her canning gear. What she kept fits into either a compact storage unit or her 1998 Honda Civic. Her car holds a cooler, a camp chair, an air mattress and a modest amount of mostly casual clothing.
Because she was a state employee, Harr receives a pension and health care covered by PERA, the state employees’ retirement fund. Instead of renting an apartment, Harr lives in housing provided by organizations for which she volunteers, or with friends.
In Gainesville, Fla., she lived in a Catholic Worker house. On one WWOOF farm there, she shared a trailer with other volunteers.
Currently, she stays with a couple in their sleek, upscale townhome in Platt Park. Her bedroom has a deck, a luxury that still amazes her after three months in the home. It’s an uncluttered space. Her clothes fit with room to spare in the dresser and closet. The few personalized touches include family photographs and an assortment of books.
Her two daughters miss the family home, but are proud of their mother’s altruism.
“I loved my childhood home so much, (but) even more important than my nostalgia is actively supporting my mom’s innate and deeply rooted desire to help her community and fellow beings,” said Kati Harr, who recently took her son, Remi Esperes, 6, to visit her mother and help cull squash leaves infected with powdery mildew.
“I really feel the route to happiness is walking within your values, living in a way that upholds the things you hold to be the most dear. My mom is a shining example of this. I am so lucky and blessed to be her daughter.”
Harr is thinking about remaining in the Denver area when her work with the Table WWOOF project ends in October. Along with a handful of others, Harr is interested in creating a co-housing community at the former Marycrest convent near Regis University in northwest Denver.
The co-housing project, under the direction of Boulder’s Wonderland Hill Development Company, would create about 21 apartments in the 35,000- square-foot former convent. Harr is among the project’s initial investors.
Living lightly suits Harr. She marvels at how stress-free her life has become.
“It’s so wonderful,” she said.
“I have to remind myself, when I see evidence that other people are under stress, that I can’t take it personally. I remember that stress from commuting to work, or getting stuck in traffic. I try to remember that, when people get short with me, they’re probably stressed about something else going on in their lives.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
