Carole Jean (Starchak) Guilfoile

Carole Jean (Starchak) Guilfoile, of Hingham, formerly of Mashpee, Cheshire and Wolcott, Connecticut, died peacefully after a valiant battle with Parkinson’s on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, at Rose Court at Linden Ponds in Hingham. She was 90.

Carole was born in Ansonia, Connecticut on May 12, 1934, the daughter of the late Carl and Eugenia (Bredice) Starchak. She graduated from Ansonia High School, and continued her education at the Waterbury Hospital School of Nursing. She was a registered nurse in the Newborn Nursery at Waterbury Hospital for much of her career. She retired in 1991 after 35 years of service. Carole maintained meaningful lifelong friendships with many of her nursing school classmates. Her gift for caretaking extended well beyond her professional life- it informed all of her best qualities.

Carole was the beloved wife of the late George D. Guilfoile, with whom she shared 53 years of marriage. She was the devoted mother of Barbara Guilfoile and her husband, Bernard Lebow of Newton, Richard Guilfoile and his wife, Mary Ann of Garden Grove, California, and the late David Guilfoile and his surviving wife, Virginia of Durham, North Carolina. Carole was the loving grandmother of Alex Lebow and his fiance, Jackie Titus, Molly Lebow and her partner, Ryan Ford, Russell (Courtney) Guilfoile, Carlie (Nathaniel) Hundt and Mia Guilfoile. Carole was also the adoring great-grandmother of David and Luke Guilfoile, and Susanna Hundt. She was also predeceased by her sister, Gayle, and sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Ann and John Bedell.

Carole was a night-owl, an avid reader, a smart dresser, and a baseball aficionado. She never gave up on the Red Sox; though she did draft a few hard-hitting missives to management. She loved the beach, always finding her way to the sandbar beyond the Cape’s coldest midsummer waves. Carole treated her grandchildren to hand crafted toys, hand-peeled apples and handwritten cards on every birthday, Halloween, Easter and Valentine’s Days. She never let you go hungry, even when you insisted you were full. She hardly ever measured ingredients, yet every meal Carole made was a lasting memory. Her sauce and meatballs, eggplant parmesan, Italian cookies, perfect mashed potatoes, and simple salad dressings are impossible to emulate and are deeply delicious monuments to her skillful love and loyalty to family. With her wry smile and nurturing manner, Carole was always the one to have by your side when the going got tough! 

Following cremation, Carole will be interred privately in Sandwich Town Cemetery. 

Please leave your favorite memories of Carole below to be enjoyed by her family and friends.