Carol van Zalingen 53, Sylmar

Carol van Zalingen fell in love with Southern California when she moved to the Los Angeles area in 2008 to take a job teaching English at the private Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena.

“She said she would never live anywhere else — it was a real ‘ Harry Potter finds his Hogwarts’ moment for her,” her brother Michael van Zalingen said.

Carol van Zalingen , 53, died of complications related to the coronavirus on April 14.

Van Zalingen’s affinity for the area stemmed in large part from her work at Westridge, where students affectionately called her “Ms. V,” her brother said.

In 2015, she became dean of student support for its lower and middle schools. Van Zalingen earned a reputation at Westridge for helping girls reach their fullest potential and for her “seemingly bottomless capacity for empathy and caring,” according to an online tribute posted by colleagues and students after news spread of her death.

“She never wanted a light shined in her direction, but her ability to listen, to be present and hold time and space for students and friends was uncanny,” the tribute said.

Michael van Zalingen says his sister possessed an introverted yet openhearted nature from an early age.

He remembers her not only as generous, patient and “the smartest person I ever knew,” but also as someone who was devoted to her students and the welfare of animals. She lived in Sylmar with two dogs.

“She was a compulsive dog rescuer,” he said. “Every time she saw a stray dog, her heart would melt.”

The siblings’ lives were unsettled early on because the family moved frequently. Their late father, Frederik, a native of the Netherlands, was an international banker who received a different post every three years.

Carol was born in Kampala, Uganda, and Michael in Tehran.

By the time Carol was 6 and Michael was 3, their American- born mother had grown weary of what Michael describes as their “peripatetic” lifestyle.

“So we got visas to come to the U. S.,” he said. They lived in the Midwest and South.

Earlier in her career, Carol worked as a teacher in Alabama and Ohio.

Michael said he intends to honor his sister by granting her final wish: to have her ashes buried in Scotland.

— Tyrone Beason