At home with her husband and her sons, Carole died peacefully in her sleep August 16, 2025. She was 63 years old. Her resolute optimism never wavered in her 13-year battle with cancer.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, Carole faced continuous treatments including lumpectomy, mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. In August 2021, doctors diagnosed her with stage 4 metastatic cancer and said she had four to five years to live.

As a nurse, Carole understood what she was up against. Facing her health challenges with grace and optimism, she set about to enjoy life as fully as possible.

After the 2021 diagnosis, she and her husband Tim retired from their careers and made a pact to travel as much as possible with their sons Rory, Connor and Brennan, enjoying family trips to Italy, the Caribbean, Finland and the Canadian Rockies.

She participated in charity bike rides and walks for Cystic Fibrosis and Relapsing Polychondritis, and loudly cheered her three sons in their sports. She was a vocal spectator for Wolverine football and basketball, wanted to win every family card game and loved walking Luna, her beloved English Cream Retriever. But nothing was better than the many summer weeks spent with the family on her treasured Bois Blanc Island in northern Michigan.

Never once did she say, “Woe is me.”

She instilled that same resilience and optimism in her sons.

She also imbued in them a sense of community service: If the church needed an altar server, then a McGillen boy was expected to step up, even if he had outgrown the robes.

Throughout her illness, she insisted that the family continue their volunteer efforts, such as assembling and distributing groceries to families in need; other volunteers wanted to work at the McGillen station because Carole was so much fun to be around.

Born to William H. and Joyce (Engels) Burkhardt, Carole grew up in New Baltimore, MI, and graduated from Anchor Bay High School where she excelled in sports. Otherwise proper and demure, Carole was fiercely competitive and was very proud of the record she set for receiving the most technical fouls in basketball, many called for jawing at the refs.

Later, when cheering her sons at their soccer matches, she learned how to avoid unsportsmanlike conduct by sucking on Tootsie Pops to stymie any urge to “advise” the refs.

Carole earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of Michigan. While working as an exercise physiologist at Preventive Cardiology at MedSport, she earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Eastern Michigan University. For most of her 35-year career in the University of Michigan medical system, Carole was the clinical nurse manager at Michigan Medicine’s Frankel Cardiovascular Center.

She met Tim McGillen in 1994 at their friends’ engagement party: Tim was a rugby friend of the groom; Carole was roommate of the bride, and each friend wanted the two to meet. Tim and Carole married in September 1996, and Carole fully embraced the extended McGillen clan. One week before she died, she insisted on attending a McGillen family reunion in northern Wisconsin. She loved being a McGillen.

Carole will be remembered for her devotion to family, for her professionalism as a nurse, for her good cheer and sense of humor.

She inspired all who knew her. She showed us the importance of living every day to the fullest, and we will miss the love and grace she showered on us all.

Survivors include her husband Tim of South Lyon; sons Rory of Los Angeles, Connor of Novi and Brennan of East Lansing (MSU); sisters Jan (Mike) Sprenger and Mary Haire; brother, William K. (Susan) Burkhardt; six nephews, four nieces and many members of the extended McGillen clan.

Visitation for Carole will be held on Thursday, August 21st, 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at McCabe Funeral Home, 31950 W. 12 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills. Visitation will continue on Friday, August 22nd, from 11:00 a.m. until the time of her Funeral Mass at 11:30 a.m. at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, 5900 McClellan Ave., Detroit, MI 48213.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to the Michigan Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which can be made online at https://give.cff.org/michigan/Donate.