Carol Daffin

Carol Ann Daffin, a long-time beautician and contractor, died peacefully on June 19. She was 84.

A graduate of Cambridge High School, she worked for decades in her mother’s beauty shop, a cozy collection of hair-washing sinks and vinyl-seat hair dryers stuffed into the front room of their house on Choptank Avenue, an old sea captain’s home a stone’s throw from Long Wharf.

Ms. Daffin spent her retirement years running her husband’s carpentry business, M&C Daffin Contractors. She worked with material suppliers and clients, and assembled crews of carpenters led by her husband, adding garages, decks, patios and porches to houses all over Dorchester County.

In the evenings, they rode their bikes along Hambrooks Bay.

Later, she would live with her daughter in West Ocean City, where she enjoyed her sunset years on the porch chatting with neighbors, going to Lobster Night at the Shark every week, watching her great-granddaughter practice ballet and her great-grandson learn how to ride his bike without training wheels, and snacking on caramel corn from the boardwalk and chocolate vanilla twists from Dumser’s.

She is survived by her grandson Ryan Abbott, granddaughter-in-law Melissa Abbott and their energetic and opinionated children, Miles and Hazel.

She is preceded in death by her parents Emma and Leonard Cannon, her husband Maurice Daffin, and Donna Abbott, her daughter.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (www.nami.org) or Coastal Hospice (www.coastalhospice.org).

A viewing will be held at Newcomb & Collins Funeral Home in Cambridge on Wednesday, June 30 from 5 to 6pm. A funeral service that Ms. Daffin will share with her beloved daughter will be held at the All Faith Chapel (26281 Tunis Mills Rd., Easton, Md.) on Thursday, July 1 at 10am.  Burial will be private at the Maryland Eastern Shore Veterans Cemetery.  A celebration of the lives of Carol Daffin and Donna Abbott will be held at the Marina Deck Restaurant (306 Dorchester St., Ocean City, Md.) the same day as the service – July 1 – from 2 to 4pm.