Carell is of Scottish, Irish, and English heritage. Her mother was an English war bride. Her father’s side has been in Canada a long time. Carell identifies as a crazy old cat lady (she has 4 cats).
Carell has valued empowering women from an early age. She credits being influenced by attending highschool during the 1960’s – a time of great activism. Attending a Catholic, separate highschool, she participated in protests any time the boys received something different than the girls. Also, her father treated her as a boy. It came as quite a shock when she got older that equality between the sexes wasn’t normal.
Carell lives by two quotes: “Eat food, not much, mostly plants.” Michael Pollen and one of her own “Strive to do your best.”
Carell has retired for the second time. Her early career was in government. She worked as a constituency assistant for their local Member of Parliament and worked for Canadian Border Services. Her second career was co-owning a boutique with her daughter. Being newly retired, she’s currently trying to find new hobbies. So far she’s enjoying her garden and genealogy.
Carell has two things of which she’s proud:
- All 3 of her children are really nice people.
- In 2008, for her 60th birthday, Carell walked across England raising $4,000 for Soroptimist International’s “Project Sierra: A Family and a Future“, the 2007-2011 quadrennial project in Sierra Leone in partnership with ‘Hope and Homes for Children.
Carell belongs to Soroptimist because she enjoys working with like-minded women to pursue goals. She recognizes that there is strength in numbers.