Born July 11, 1931
Burlington, Vermont
Died June 12, 2024
Richmond, Vermont
Details of services
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 22nd, at 10am at the Community Church of Huntington.
Those who know and love the Moultroup farm in Richmond most likely think of the late Henry Moultroup as its senior member. But last week on one of those early summer days when the air grows clear and the poplars release seeds like snow, loving friends and family streamed into the little yellow house on Huntington Road to say goodbye to the farm’s most senior resident – a woman who lived her entire 92 years of life calling that valley home.
Charlotte Virginia Tomlinson, who never loved the heat, was born on July 11, 1931, smack in the middle of haying season. Her parents, Archie and Martha Tomlinson, brought her home to two older brothers. Growing up as the only girl and youngest child by seventeen years, Charlotte’s memories of childhood on the farm in the valley were idyllic. When it was time for school, she walked up the road to attend the Towers School, a one room schoolhouse named after the neighboring farm family who had sold her father land in the early 1900’s. Charlotte excelled in school, eventually graduating valedictorian of her class from Richmond High School.
One summer in the late 1940’s, Henry was logging in Huntington. Nearly every day he and his friend, Carroll, would drive past the Tomlinson farm. And every day as he passed through, there was Charlotte Tomlinson on a swing in her front yard. “That’s the girl I’m gonna marry,” Henry claims to have told Carroll. One day, he finally pulled his car over to talk to the girl on the swing. Over seven decades later, when Henry told that story, he would describe with uncanny detail the way Charlotte tip-toed barefoot over the newly laid asphalt towards his car. “I’ll never forget,” he said with a young man’s grin, “she was wearing red shorts.”
Charlotte married Henry on August 14, 1949. They built their home beside the Tomlinson farmhouse in 1951, changing Charlotte’s view of the valley by only a couple hundred feet. It was there that she and Henry raised their five boys. And she never tired of that view, though she sometimes lamented how quickly the cars passed. In her later years, she spent many an hour on her side porch. If you saw her there, you were always welcome to stop in. In fact, there was nothing she loved more than company. A picture of who she was is evidenced by the company she kept:
Charlotte was a dedicated employee. As an outlet for her grief after the passing of her mother, Charlotte began work at the Richmond Creamery, remaining there until the plant closed down. Along with several stints at local businesses, she was employed for fifteen years by the Jericho Post Office until her retirement.
Charlotte was a good friend – and had many lifelong friends in whom she invested. Those friends remember idling away afternoons on her porch, driving to find beautiful foliage, attending craft fairs, shopping deals at Penney’s, discovering a new breakfast joint, or playing dominoes late into the night.
Her neighbors remember her retrieving maple syrup jugs from her cellar, navigating the stairs with surprising agility and taking pains to put the “Moultroup Valley Farm” label on the jug in just the right spot.
Her church family remembers her singing in the choir, entertaining grandchildren in her pew, toting her “working girl” salad to potlucks, or joining hands with her at the end of a Sunday morning service as the congregation gathered ‘round to sing “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”.
Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren remember posing for pictures. Though Grandpa Henry would sputter, Charlotte insisted on photographing special moments. She delighted in capturing the blossoming of her “grands” and “great-grands” along with the blossoming of her roses or peonies or hydrangeas. To her grandchildren, Charlotte was ever-generous – keeping up with birthdays, making sure they never walked out the door without a treat of some kind. And how many of them did she welcome in and shelter through their personal ups and downs?
Her daughters-in-law will remember being the daughters she never had. Even to the end, their presence and care were more than a mother could hope for – mowing her lawn, making her breakfast, taking her to church, tending her gardens, tending her spirit in her last days. Her gratitude for them was deeper than she could express.
Her sons will remember a thousand small things, for who can quantify the love of a mother that accumulates in the wiping of kitchen tables and bottoms and tears, in the washing of cuts and barn clothes, in the patching up of blue jeans and sore feelings? They will remember her love for reading – the stories she read aloud to them by the hour. They will remember season after season that she opened her home to them during deer hunting. They will remember finding her out on the back lawn hanging sheets in the breeze, finding her walking down the meadow lane, finding that the Tupperware jar on the kitchen counter never ran out of molasses cookies.
Twenty years ago, on a Saturday morning in early October, Charlotte wrote to a grandchild away at college: Our leaves are reaching peak and really bright. Wish you were here to enjoy them . . . P.S. Mark and Grandpa took down our sad maple tree in the front yard yesterday. It leaves quite a hole! Even at 92, death is a thief that takes something not rightfully its own. Those who knew and loved Charlotte feel the absence of a constant presence – like waking in the morning to find that an old beloved tree has come down. Indeed, her absence leaves quite a hole. Though we grieve, we also take great comfort, for on that striking June day when Charlotte let go of this life – this river valley with its towering trees – she was sinking her roots into a hope in Jesus that was her stay through nearly 93 years of trials and joys.
Charlotte was predeceased by her faithful husband of 72 years, Henry Moultroup; her parents, Martha Mary Anna (Norton) and Archie Tomlinson; her brothers, Kenneth (and Eleanor) Tomlinson and Wayne (and Kay) Tomlinson; her eldest son, Bruce Moultroup; and a daughter-in-law, Josie Moultroup. She leaves behind her sons: David (and Bonnie) Moultroup, Mark (and Alice) Moultroup, Jeffrey (and Debbie) Moultroup and Terry (and Dawna) Moultroup. She also leaves 17 grandchildren and nearly 40 great-grandchildren. We are all so grateful to have known and loved her.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Charlotte Moultroup.