25 expat voices: Lee Carter

Expat: Lee Carter

Image:Holly Wilmeth

Hospice founders Lee Carter, Milou de Montferrier, and Joanie Barcal.

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Ana Prado

We asked our 25 featured expats if they have a specific Mexico “moment” or memory—something that always makes them think, “Yep, this is home,” or “That’s what I love about this place.” View Slideshow >>

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Organization: Hospice San Miguel

Website: hospicesma.org

Originally from: I grew up in the state of Virginia. I graduated from Hamden Sydney College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1976, and I later received my MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Lives in: San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

Living in Mexico: That would add up to almost twenty-three years! Yeeks, I had no idea it had been that long!

Why did you move to Mexico?

In 1985 I decided that I was not for the corporate life. I decided that I wanted to learn Spanish and came to San Miguel for six weeks of study. I fell in love with Mexico, particularly the tradition of craftmanship and artesania. When I returned to San Antonio, Texas I took about $400 USD worth of artesania and sold it in one day, so I immediately returned with $800 USD and bought again. My passion for craft and handmade items, along with my love of Mexico, became my business. I have essentially lived in Mexico ever since.

Tell us about Hospice San Miguel. How did you get it started, and how is it serving the people of San Miguel?

My younger brother died of pancreatic cancer in a hospice in Virginia about ten years ago. My father, a retired physician, was so taken with the hospice that he spent the next eight years of his life serving there. He died in hospice in 2006. I returned to Virginia to care for him the last three months of his life, and we had a very powerful and wonderful experience.

One year before, a close friend of mine had died in Mexico and I was also his caretaker: it was extremely difficult without professional support. The difference between my father's beautiful death and Billy's was so drastically different! I began to think of all the Mexican friends and artisan families I had worked with over the years, and I vowed that these friends would have the options and support that every human should have at the end of life.

Teaming up with Milou and Joanie, we began on October 15, 2006 to hatch our idea to open a hospice in San Miguel that met the same standards as first-world hospices. I am also dedicated to helping the hospice/palliative care movement spread throughout Mexico and Latin America. Recreating the Anglo-American hospice model into a Mexican model that makes sense and is valuable within the cultural conditions of Mexico has been an exciting journey.

Are you involved in other organizations, activities, or hobbies here?

I am a gardener at heart; when I was in Virginia with my father, I worked to create the first garden in a hospice facility that was specifically designed for the needs of a person at the end of life. The only pre-existing example I found of this was from a hospice in Australia.

Do you have a specific Mexico "moment" that makes you think, "That's what I love about this place"? 

A friend I met in San Miguel, Roberto Granados, had always been a tinsmith but did not make enough money to support his family. He was planning to leave for the States the day before I met him. I convinced him to stay a few more days to make my samples for a new idea.

He has not ever been without work since. We have put several of his children through university; they have taken me in as a part of their family. My designs, executed by Roberto, have become part of the permanent collections of the International Musem of Folk Art in New Mexico, The FIT Institute for Design, the Oakland Museum, and another museum in Berlin. Our work has been published in Artes de Mexico, Re-cycled Re-seen, and The Art of the Tin Can. We have done all of this together and I am proud of that and this friendship. 

What are both the best and the hardest things about being an expat in Mexico?

The best part is that we are not allowed to have political opinions and the worst part is that we cannot vote! Truly, being an expat is not difficult in any way anymore. This feels like my home. I hope that I will have my Mexican citizenship within the next year or so.