Charlotte Petrides Day

Charlotte passed away peacefully on September 10, 2026, following a brief illness and surrounded by her family. Charlotte was born and raised in Miami, Florida, to Robert and Marguerite Ackerman. She especially treasured family trips to Memphis to visit her aunts and extended family. She graduated from Miami Jackson High School and soon afterward married James Petrides and began a new life in Atlanta.

After starting her family, Charlotte returned to college at Georgia State University, where she studied interior design. She later earned her ASID certification and began working at Designers II, receiving numerous national awards for her work. She eventually founded her own firm, Phoenix Design Group, where awards continued with her focus on senior living. The work even gave her ample opportunity to incorporate her favorite color—brown—into her many projects. She brought attention to detail to everything she did—writing extensive notes in longhand for every facet of her life.

Charlotte approached life with curiosity, humor, determination, and more than a little flair for the dramatic. She loved beaches, ancient civilizations, wildlife—raccoons in particular—Bigfoot, fresh corn, aliens, chocolate and her beloved cat, Luna. She was an avid gardener who took great pride in her flowers and tomato plants.

She also had a way of making ordinary things into occasions.

Charlotte took a ceremonial approach to nearly everything, whether slicing a watermelon or unveiling a new design project. She believed moments should be memorable. At Halloween, that instinct for theater reached its full expression when she transformed herself into Esmerelda, her fortune-telling alter ego.

Charlotte possessed an adventurous spirit that only grew stronger with age. Beginning in her late 40s, she traveled to 32 countries, seeking out new places, people, and experiences. Her adventures included an audience with the Dalai Lama and, at the age of 83, riding a camel through the Sahara Desert.

She loved sharing that sense of discovery with her family. Some of her favorite outings with her grandchildren were trips to natural history museums to see dinosaur bones and visits to the Yellow River Game Ranch.

Above all, Charlotte was enormously proud of her family. She is survived by her three children, Dana (Scott) Allen, Steve (Katie) Petrides, and Laura (Dr. Steven) Wall; her grandchildren, USAF Major Finn (Sarah) Petrides, Anna (Arley) Johnson, Isabella Petrides, Addison Wall, and Barclay Wall; and her great-grandchildren, Henry and Loretta Petrides.

Charlotte was a true force of nature. She reinvented herself successfully more than once over the course of her life, and very little could stand between her and something she had decided to accomplish. She possessed an iron will, remarkable grit, an enduring curiosity about the world, and a determination that carried her through every obstacle placed in her path.

She lived a remarkable life—creative, adventurous, unconventional, and entirely her own. She will be deeply missed by the family she loved so fiercely and by all those fortunate enough to have known her.

A celebration of life service will be held on Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 1:00PM at Heritage Pines Clubhouse at 2000 Heritage Pines Dr. Cary NC 27519

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina CLAWS, or a similar charity.