Taimi Ester (Hannikat) Carter, of 298 Shoemaker Road, Mohawk, departed this life on Jan. 25, 2006 , at the Folts Homes, Herkimer. Taimi was born on Estonia's Baltic Sea island, Hiiuma, on Dec. 20, 1923, the daughter of the late Priido Hannikat and Maria (Poor) Hannikat, both of Tallinn, Estonia. Taimi attended Hiiuma schools and Tallinn's Technological Academy until the invasion of Tallinn by the USSR in September 1944. At the war's end she was in Norway, thereafter in Arolsen, Germany, while employed by the Tracing Bureau of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRAA - predecessor to the United Nations Refugee Agency) as a cartographer - mapping for the reuniting of war-separated families. Taimi met Paul N. Carter, then assistant legal adviser to the director of UNRAA operations in American, British and French zones of Germany. Paul and Taimi married in Heidelberg, Germany, on June 11, 1947. Returning to the United States in May of 1948, in Cambridge, Mass., their first son, John, was born. Paul attended graduate law courses at Harvard during the winter terms of 1948 and 1949. Impressed by a visit to the Mohawk Valley in the early summer of 1949, Paul and Taimi, with their infant son John, made their home in Mohawk. Taimi there raised their three children and, as possible, indulged her special talent of landscape and seascape painting in oils and watercolors, while Paul practiced law in the adjoining village of Ilion as a partner in the firm ?Carter and Manley.? Taimi served as a Cub Scout den mother, was a member of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute painting classes, and a 50-year member of the Mohawk Eastern Star. Taimi is survived by her loving and devoted husband, Paul N. Carter Esq. of Mohawk; her daughter, Leah Ruth Carter of Mohawk; her son, John E.S. Carter and John's daughter Jessica Marie Carter, both of Phoenix, Ariz.; Taimi's sisters-in-law, Ruth C. Hok of Utica and Anna Maija Hannikat of Finland. Sadly her son, Scott LeRoy Carter, predeceased her. Taimi, in expressing her love to all her relatives and friends, has instructed there be no public calling hours. Family and friends are invited to a graveside committal service on Tuesday, Jan. 31, commencing at 2 p.m. at the Mohawk Cemetery with Father George Greene officiating. Special thanks to Judy Simonette, and the nurses and staff at the Folts Homes. In lieu of floral offerings, please consider memorials to The Salvation Army in Taimi's memory. Donation envelopes will be available at the cemetery service. The Graves-Applegate-Day Funeral Home, 48 E. Main St., Mohawk, is serving the Carter family.