It is with deep sorrow and much love that we mourn the passing of Raymie Beth Bluml of Carroll on Sunday January 24, 2021 at the age of 35 years old.
A Memorial Service will be held Saturday February 27th from 1:00pm to 4:00pm at the Conservation Center at Swan Lake. Memorials may be sent to Raymie Bluml Memorial, P.O. Box 121, Carroll, Iowa 51401.
She will be dearly missed by her parents Jeff Bluml of Fort Dodge, and Sherry Bluml and John Davis of Carroll; her siblings Christa Bluml of Carroll, Andrew Bluml (Angelica Harris) of Knoxville Tennessee, and Trisha Langenfeld of Gunnison Colorado; nieces and nephews Jaden Boulware, Aiden Bluml, Juniper Thorn, Penny Thorn, and Sofia Bluml; and maternal grandmother Linda Sabus of Carroll, along with many other family and friends.
She was preceded in death by her maternal grandfather and namesake Raymond Sabus, and paternal grandparents Elmer and Bernice Bluml.
Raymie was born on June 12th, 1985 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She grew up in Canon City, Colorado before moving to Carroll where she graduated from Carroll High School in 2004. After high school she attended Naugatuck Community College in Naugatuck Connecticut.
“I am standing like shoe polish on an overstocked shelf. Hoping that one day someone will pick me to make things better” And making things better is something Raymie could do. She had an enormous heart, which came through in many ways. She made the lives better of people she didn’t know, for example by taking donations to help feed the homeless. But it was the lives of her family members where she made a particularly powerful impact. She was the person that would be there to listen to problems, worries, and concerns and she would use her positive outlook on things to be a source of comfort and reassurance. Raymie was a big kid at heart, she was fun, she had a strong love for her family, she was there when those needed her, and she was a beacon of inspiration.
Raymie couldn’t be tied down and was happiest on the go. “Please remember me happily. With maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank. A vision too removed to mention”. She would find times of peace when visiting the oceans and mountains. She traveled the country exploring and making memories and friends along the way. Raymie had this ability to be able to walk up to anyone and strike up a conversation. “I know everything is out there. It’s why they call it everything”. Her ability to live in the moment and be present in the now, aided in her adventures and her nomadic lifestyle.
Raymie would want to be remembered for her creativity. She would create snow sculptures with great detail like the hand that stood four feet tall. She was known for her graffiti, making jewelry out of the rocks she enjoyed collecting, and beautiful drawings. “So, I can fiddle with fate and make music”. She had a love for art and poems. Raymie had a special love for music, in the way that it can be therapy for one’s soul.
“Please remember me fondly. And they went on to say that the pearly gates had some eloquent graffiti”. One might think graffiti on heaven’s gates could be seen as a bad thing, but one of Raymie’s greatest gifts was to be able to make you see things from another perspective. That if you had an open mind, she could make you see things in a way that you had never thought of.
A beautiful soul, Raymie could see the beauty in things that others thought were useless. “Because even at your worst you are (…) incredible”. On one of Raymie’s journeys she lost one of her shoes. But the shoe was too good to throw away, so she hung on to it. One day she happened upon an old broken lamp whose base looked like a shoe. She restored the lamp and painted it to look like the shoe she had lost, so they would be a pair and have each other. She always saw the beauty in things that others thought were beyond repair.
“So please remember me, finally. And all my uphill clawing, my dear. But if I make the pearly gates. Do my best to make a drawing”
Quotes incorporated are taken from Raymie’s favorite poem “The Information Man” by Buddy Wakefield and one of her favorite songs “Trapeze Swinger” by Iron and Wine.