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"Beloved wife, mother, grandmother and friend Helen Virginia Karp (nee Allen) of Tempe, Arizona peacefully crossed the threshold into the spiritual world on Monday, August 24; she was 86 years old.  Helen was a vivacious, joyful woman of great beauty, style and sincerity. She was born in Flint Michigan, the third of four children, but was raised from an early age in Janesville, Wisconsin. Her father Lawrence was a charismatic traveling salesman who took young Helen on many of his sales trips to her great delight. A love of adventurous car trips stayed with Helen and she took her own children on many “great adventures” as well as “losts” as she sometimes called them, pretending to get lost down mysterious, country roads. Her mother Elizabeth, an Irish matriarch of great style and stature imbued Helen with the strength, religious devotion, pride, and intelligence to rise above the mundane and melancholy and look ever forward to the promise of the future.  Helen was a great beauty in high school with a passion for theatre and literature who graduated from St Mary high school. At 19, before she hardly had a moment to think about a career, Mike Karp swept into her life—an older man, handsome, worldly and wise—the two fell in love, married and over the next 7 years had five children. The couple created an incredibly rich and nurturing environment for their children—full of idealism, optimism, creativity, nature and adventure—and surrounded by their many, lifelong Janesville friends.  In 1972, the tragic loss of their home to fire and a personal and professional crisis in Mike’s life led the family to Tempe, Arizona. Though the move was shrouded in the mood of loss, Helen’s strength and determination rose to the surface and helped carry the family through the crisis. And the West turned out to be a breath of fresh air for her—far away from old familial and religious patterns and expectations, and with her children growing older, Helen explored new directions. She went to college—a lifelong dream—and studied philosophy, geology, literature and eventually got a teaching degree at ASU. She tried her hand at teaching, worked briefly as a Realtor, hiked the Grand Canyon, traveled to Ireland, Hawaii and New Zealand and performed countless hours of charitable service for a host of local churches—relishing the opportunities for self-expression that the 60’s and 70’s had opened up for women. In 2016, feeling unmoored by the death of her beloved husband Mike after 60 years of marriage, Helen began another new adventure by moving into Friendship Village, a retirement community in Tempe. These proved to be difficult years for Helen as her hearing and memory loss combined increasingly isolated her from the rich social life in which she normally swam like a fish in water.  Nonetheless, she performed many hours of service for the local children’s hospital by volunteering for Kiwanis and made several new friends, most notably Win Holden whose kindness and companionship were a highlight of these last years of her life. Helen was preceded in death by her brother Tom, sister Mary and her son John and is survived by her brother Richard and wife Hazel, her son  Michael and wife Cheryl,  son James and wife Emily, daughter Eliza and partner Donna,  son Robert and her grandchildren Jasper and wife Emilee, Nicholas, Johannes, Leon, Johnny, Rakel, Sarah, Frank and Georgia and her great grandchildren Frank and Uno. Helen will be remembered for her radiant, buoyant spirit; her sparkling blue eyes; her deep and abiding friendships; her passionate, loyal and nurturing love for her husband, children and grandchildren; her religious devotion; her artistic flair and wildly embellished stories; and the independent, undaunted, optimistic spirit that kept her looking ever again to the future, to the next plateau, the next great adventure.  While we grief deeply the loss of your presence in our lives, Helen, we know that you are now on the next great adventure of your life and we send you our blessing:May the road rise up to meet youMay the wind be always at your backMay the sun shine warm upon your faceThe rains fall soft upon your fieldsAnd until we meet againMay God hold you in the palm of His hand. Donations in Helen’s name may be made to Hospice of the Valley whose extraordinary care made it possible for Helen to be at peace and surrounded by her loved ones in the final days of her life."
<https://www.qohcfh.org/obituaries/Helen-Virginia-Karp-nee-Allen?obId=18111597>