Carolyn Daniels Sanger of Topsfield, the daughter of Eastham residents Edward and Nancy Daniels, died in a hiking accident on April 23, 2025 at Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Sutton. An oncology nurse and a mother of four, she was 49.
Carrie was born on June 24, 1975 in Framingham and grew up in Holliston. She inherited a paper route handed down to her by her siblings, Pamela and Edward, and on weekends and holidays she’d explore the local environs with her friends, coming home at dinnertime when called by her mother’s brass bell.
Carrie’s family spent most summer vacations in Eastham, where Carrie loved Thumpertown, Nauset Light, and Coast Guard beaches.
In 1985, her father, a science teacher at Framingham High School, converted a van into a small camper and took the family on a summer-long cross-country trip. The spare tire cover on the back of the van read “Cape Cod to California.”
“That trip was a powerful experience for Carrie,” said her father.
She ran cross country and played basketball at Holliston High, graduating in 1993. She earned a nursing degree at UMass Lowell in 1997 and joined her sister in Atlanta, where she began her career as a pediatric oncology nurse at Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children. She worked long hours, often overnight, caring for the children and working closely with their parents.
Embracing life away from work, Carrie learned to scuba dive, skied in Colorado, tried sky diving, and on a trip to Alaska ran in the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Half Marathon in Anchorage.
She returned to Massachusetts and worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital from 2001 to 2008 as a blood marrow transplant oncology nurse and at South Shore Hospital as a clinical nurse specialist from 2008 to 2013. She then moved to Mass. General Hospital as an outpatient oncology infusion nurse.
Carrie reconnected with Michael Sanger, a college friend who had joined the Army after 9/11. He was on active duty when they married in 2005. Their first son was born while Michael was deployed in Iraq in 2007. Hit hard by post-partum depression, Carrie joined her parents in Eastham, where she received support from the Cape Cod Children’s Place. “She was a caregiver,” her sister said, “and she knew when she needed care.”
Michael returned in 2008 with a Purple Heart, two Silver Stars, and a case of PTSD. “They became the poster couple of Home Base,” the Mass General-Boston Red Sox national nonprofit dedicated to healing the invisible wounds of war for veterans, said her father.
Carrie and Michael had three more children, and she continued her education, becoming both a licensed massage therapist and a reiki master. Her dream was to establish her own wellness business.
Toward that end and with her brother’s support, she bought an old house in Topsfield in 2024 and prepared to open Balanced Body. “She did her own interior renovations,” Pam said. Her business, with six professionals, offered massage (prenatal techniques a specialty), reiki, aesthetics, and wellness workshops. It began taking clients in early 2025 and was slated for a grand opening on May 17.
After years of caring for cancer patients and witnessing much suffering, Carrie was dedicated to life. She worked hard and was, her father said, “relentlessly happy.” While she did not always know in advance how she was going to accomplish her goals, she had a vision and followed it.
Carrie is survived by her husband, Michael Sanger, and four children, John Alden, Quinn, Camille, and Kelan, of Topsfield; her parents, Ed and Nancy Daniels of Eastham; her sister, Pamela Daniels of Brewster; her brother, Edward Daniels, and wife Doriane of Holliston; her father- and mother-in-law, Dana and Sandy Sanger of Topsfield; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on May 9 at the Topsfield Congregational Church, 9 East Common St., with a gathering at the town hall afterward. All are welcome.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Carrie’s memory can be made to the Cape Cod Children’s Place in Eastham.
