Amy Carreira

Born April 26, 1972 in Memphis, TN, to Carol Sue House (Scates) and Carl Franklin House, Jr, Amy cultivated her beautiful Southern accent in her hometown of Dyersburg, TN. Amy’s mother had a new nickname for her seemingly every day and her father kept hoping a money tree would grow in the backyard to cover their covert shopping adventures. Based on the stories told every holiday, Amy and her brother Kurt surely gave their parents all they could handle.

Upon graduating Dyersburg H.S., Amy left for Knoxville, eventually graduating with a B.S. in Communications from the University of Tennessee. It was there that she took pity on a yankee interloper named Ted and eventually agreed to marry him despite her better judgment.

After a brief time living in Nashville, Amy and Ted relocated to the greater NYC area for four of the best years of Amy’s life. While there, she combined her personal passion for music with her exquisite graphic design skills at leading music publications, including Rolling Stone and The Source. A 2001 move to Raleigh, NC allowed her to meet her next group of lifelong friends and continue to pursue her graphic design career albeit remotely from home. While in Raleigh, Amy and Ted welcomed the eternal loves of her life, sons of Colin and Trevor, to complete their family.

A lifelong, self-professed hypochondriac, Amy got the ultimate “I told you so” in 2011. For several months, she persistently said she didn’t feel right. Doctors told her they thought it was allergies, anxiety, etc. Ted dismissed it as “Amy being Amy”. Ultimately a CT scan brought the shock news of a brain tumor. A great friend, Susie Bergquist, got word and helped get Amy’s care moved to the Duke Tisch Brain Tumor Center. Surgery, radiation, and a year of chemo barely fazed her. This would be the first of three times she fought the best fight anyone could ever imagine and had the love and admiration of everyone who ever met her along her journey.

Throughout her life Amy loved music. While she liked different genres it was the bands of her youth that she loved the most. Even as her condition worsened in the fall of 2023, she managed to see two of her all-time favorite bands - Duran Duran and Depeche Mode - in the Boston Garden with her “partner in crime” Chris Fellows.

One of Amy’s favorite words was “shenanigans”, and how apropos. She hit an unfortunate duck on her driving test (and still passed!); she brought a bottle of champagne to the bus stop the first day the kids went to school; she once blew out front and rear passenger-side tires and drove home wondering why the car was making a funny sound; she got super glue on her fingers and accidentally touched her nose while wearing a T-shirt that said “this is what brain cancer looks like”; she got her young son Trevor Tupperware for Christmas because he once complained hers were too “beat up”; and she was a two-time vegan (or failed vegan, perhaps more accurately), succumbing each time to the siren song of bacon.

A character in every sense. The unmistakable accent. A smile that lit up rooms. A contagious laugh. A runner. A fighter. A warm heart. A woman of great faith in God. A great daughter and sister. A fun and loving wife. An incredible mother. A loyal friend to all.That was Amy.

Survived by her loving husband, Ted; her beloved sons Colin (21) and Trevor (16); parents Carol and Carl House; brother Kurt (Erin); nephews Parker, Ethan, Asher, and Dylan; in-laws Carolyn and Len; sister-in-law Kelly Carreira (Rob Scroger)…also a small shrine to Duran Duran and half a bottle of Jacky D.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in memory of Amy Carreira; to support cancer research and patient care at: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, P.O. Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284 or via dana-farber.org/gift or to the Pat Roche Hospice Home or NVNA and Hospice, 120 Longwater Dr, Norwell, MA 02061. Online donations can be made at nvna.org. The family thanks DFCI for years of extraordinary care and the NVNA and Pat Roche Hospice Home for doing the work of angels.

Visitation will be March 10 from 1pm - 3pm at Richardson-Gaffey Funeral Home, 382 First Parish Rd, Scituate, MA immediately followed by a private celebration of life (contact the family for details). In memory of Amy, the family asks that attire be Casual, Comfortable, and Colorful.