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Cara Beth (Gates) Salsgiver

imgonline-com-ua-FrameBlurred-393rprNpwmiCara Beth (Gates) Salsgiver, age 49, passed away on Monday, July 18th, due to natural causes.

Cara was born on January 23, 1973, to Cindy Curran of Oil City (formerly of Bradford, PA) and Thomas Gates (formerly of Bradford, PA), both of whom survive.

Cara graduated from Venango Christian High School in 1991.

She was naturally intelligent and academics came easy to her.

During her high school years, she was involved with the volleyball team and enjoyed her experiences with it immensely.

She worked at several local businesses over the years and recently worked at Telereach.

She was proud of the work she did and the raises she obtained during her time there; she appreciated many of her coworkers as well.

The last position she held was completing administrative work for a local mail contracting company.

Cara was preceded in death by her maternal grandmother, Mary Lynn Jackson (Bradford), paternal grandfather, Gordon Jackson (Oil City), paternal grandmother, Colleen Gates and paternal grandfather James Gates, Sr. (both of Bradford).

Cara is survived by her parents, her children, Jacob Salsgiver and Dylan Salsgiver of Seneca and Logan Bemis of Oil City, her sister, Hillary (Gates) Wisniewski, brother-in-law, Mike Wisniewski, and niece, Freya Wisniewski of Oil City, and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Cara had a deep love for her “son shines” and was very proud of all that her boys accomplished academically and athletically.

She enjoyed going to their sporting events and spending time with them.

Anyone who talked with Cara knew she loved her sons more than anyone in this world and beyond.

Cara also loved her niece, Freya.

They enjoyed hanging out and watching HGTV shows together.

Freya was her “punky.”

In general, Cara enjoyed spending time with family and friends, listening to music, reading,
and laughing.

She really loved the ‘Cow Bell’ skit on Saturday Night Live.

Often she would laugh at her dad’s stories about his exploits during high school and she found her mother’s excessive purchasing of cleaning supplies to be a source of humor.

Cara loved to share funny pictures, videos, and memes with friends and family online.

When she was younger she enjoyed going to concerts and took her sister to her very first concert.

Cara loved iced coffee and her great aunt’s Texas sheet cake.

She had a soft spot for babies, children, and animals.

Her mother’s dog, Jax, loved Cara quite a bit and was always so happy when his “sissy” would visit him.

Many of Cara’s recent years were focused on her struggles with mental illness and addiction and her efforts to live in recovery.

She attended local AA/NA meetings and developed friendships and supports through meetings.

Cara completed training to be a Peer Support Specialist.

She was so proud of being able to do that and was able to see the potential in others who were battling addiction and mental illness.

Cara often spoke about meeting people where they were at in their journey and loving them from that place in order to provide them with hope and encouragement for recovery.

She understood that it was something that needed to come from a place of positive regard for others and to look beyond the person’s struggles in order to see the person themselves.

As a family we ask that those reading this see Cara for her humanity: see her as a daughter, mother, aunt, sister, cousin, and friend.

See her as someone who was hurting, but continued to try to find her way.

This is how we want her to be remembered.

She would want you to see her not just for her struggles, but to recognize she was a person who mattered and, despite the challenges throughout the years, she was valued and loved by many.

We share this part of her life because, realistically, it was part of who she was and we are not ashamed of telling this aspect of her story.

Cara knew the more that we speak openly about addiction and mental illness the more we help to fight the stigma and shame that prevents so many individuals and families from getting help.

Cara would want people to know they need not be ashamed and they can work on finding hope in recovery.

There will be no visitation or funeral.

The family will plan a Celebration of Life at another time.

The family requests that if people feel moved to do something to honor Cara and her memory they can make donations to Family Service Drug and Alcohol Program or Precious Paws Animal Rescue.

The Rinsel Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Condolences may be sent at www.reinselfuneralhome.com

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