Elaine Teall died on March 31, 2026, of pancreatic cancer, and the world is a darker and emptier place without her. After raising three children, teaching for 42 years, caring for her mother and then her husband as their health declined, she had earned the right to simply enjoy her life on her own terms for a few years – but, as it does for so many people, cancer stole that from her.
Elaine was born in Freeport, New York, on December 12, 1947, to Margaret and Edwin Carlin. She had an older brother, Eddie, who died of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at age 30, and two younger sisters, Cynthia and Dorothy. Her parents claimed that she started out as an impossibly stubborn child, but they managed to turn her into a perfect young lady. As a teenager, Elaine attended Moravian Academy in Pennsylvania and then headed to Hope College (Class of 1969). Her parents hoped she would get her degree and return home to New York; Elaine dreamed of becoming an airline stewardess and traveling the world. Neither happened – instead, she met and married Gary Teall, the love of her life and her total opposite in almost every way, and settled down in Holland. She started teaching in Coopersville Area Public Schools, where she would remain for the next 42 years. Her fellow teachers became lifelong friends, and she became the favorite teacher of literal generations of middle school students. Elaine and Gary raised three children, Eric, Maggie, and Kathy. Elaine made teaching all day and parenting all night look so easy that her children all became teachers and parents as well – and only then did they realize how positively heroic their mom was. At age 40, while her children were still very young, Elaine was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She suffered through a year of brutal treatments which the doctors warned her would each take a year off of her life, but she persisted. Nonetheless, she was diagnosed with a relapse of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2004 and pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2025.
In her retirement, Elaine attended nearly every recital, concert, and athletic event her eight grandchildren (Alissa, Graham, Robbie, Lila, Grayson, Charlotte, Blake, and Kai) participated in, and swooped in to save the day any time her three adult children needed her. She volunteered in many capacities at First United Methodist Church of Holland where she was a faithful and lifelong member, spent time with her Coopersville retiree friends, and kept fit and made wonderful new “Zumba friends” at Evergreen Commons. These friends rallied around her over the past year, driving her to treatments, rushing her to the emergency room, bringing her meals, and keeping her company until the very end.
Elaine loved waterparks, swimming in the ocean, Les Misérables, and mystery novels. She traveled to Japan, Alaska, Portugal, Austria, and England. She was calm and refined in a rowdy family – when it was her turn to choose what tape (yes, tape) to listen to on family road trips, she often chose thirty minutes of silence. She was Michigan Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2010. She gave great advice. She was fiercely loyal. Her patience and kindness were legendary. No obituary could adequately capture the life she led and the gaping hole that is now in the hearts of those who loved her.
Elaine is preceded in death by her parents, Margaret and Edwin Carlin, her brother Eddie Carlin, and her husband, Gary Teall. She is survived by her sisters, Cynthia Drake and Dorothy Carbone, her lifelong friend Mary Miller, her three children and their spouses: Eric Teall (Jenni), Maggie Teall (Mark Beaver), and Kathy Teall (Nick Vartanian), and eight grandchildren: Alissa and Robbie Teall, Graham, Lila, and Charlotte Beaver, and Grayson, Blake, and Kai Vartanian, and countless others whose lives she touched in her 78 years on Earth.
A Memorial Service will be held at 4:30 p.m. on April 24 at First United Methodist Church in Holland. In lieu of flowers, donations to Faith Hospice or The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research are welcome.
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