Carolyn Una Cox was born in Ross General Hospital to Dr. Thomas J. Cox and Una Van Houten Cox on January 31, 1948. She attended Ross Grammar School and San Domenico in San Rafael, both in Marin County, California. Carolyn graduated from San Domenico in 1966. She then attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and Mortar Board. Carolyn graduated with a bachhelor’s degree in History in 1970, with honors and a Phi Beta Kappa key.
Carolyn emigrated to Vancouver, B.C. where she met and married Janos (John) Szirony, whose family had fled Hungary during the 1956 invasion by Russia. John and Carolyn lived on a 5-acre farm in Yarrow, B.C., an hour east of Vancouver, where they raised John’s two daughters, Aniko and GAbriella, from a former marriage. John and Carolyn also raised 5 of their own children. One child, Christopher, died at an early age of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Carolyn struggled with mental illness following the death of Christopher. She was gregarious, and a prolific writer. Her intelligence, warmth, and kind nature impressed everything who met her. She spent the last several years as a resident of Connolly Lodge at Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, B.C.
Carolyn was diagnosed in 2003 with bladder cancer. She was operated on in 2006 and considered cured, but the cancer recurred in December 2008. Following a brief period of illness, Carolyn succumbed on January 13, 18 days short of her 61st birthday. She is survived by her husband John and four children; Arpad (Thomas) and Matya (Matthew), both of Vancouver; Melanie, a medical student at UBC in Victoria; and Katalin, who married Steve Yager, and resides in Statesboro, GA, in the United States.
A Mass or Christian Burial will take place on Monday, Jan. 19, 2009 at 12 (noon) at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 8909 Mary St., Chilliwack B.C. Interment in St. Mary’s cemetery. Remembrances in Carolyn’s honor may be sent to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 8909 Mary St.