Good afternoon. My name is Anne Knight. First, I want to express my deep sympathy to Tom, Maddie, Kaki, Mr. and Mrs. Moses and all of Christine and Tom's family.
I first met Christine about 7 years ago when our daughters began Kindergarten at Villa Academy. I think the school play that year or the next was the Wizard of Oz. Kaki was a flying monkey. Maddie was The Cowardly Lion and Tom had a cameo role as the Wicked Witch of The East who had the house dropped on her. And Christine...she was the behind-the-scenes drama coordinator extraordinaire! She was the snack coordinator, the snack supplier for the rehearsals...and there were MANY rehearsals. She was the costume coordinator, set designer and chief chaperone of all the young flying monkeys, munchkins and other actors. Come to think of it, I think she organized the cast party and did make up too!
Anyway, this is how I first came to know Christine. And this is how we parents in the Villa community continually witnessed our exceptional friend over the years.
I want to share more Christine stories... there are so many. In Kaki's first year of preschool at Villa she was three years old. She arrived everyday for school in her Dorothy costume. Christine not only allowed Kaki to wear this costume everyday, she washed it every night while Kaki slept so it would be clean and fresh for the next day. I'm told (by Maria LeCuyer) that each day when most mothers were saying goodbye to their children at drop-off or in the meeting circle, they would also say goodbye to Christine who was going to be staying at preschool all day - at the request of Kaki. (Kaki wasn't sad or crying, she just asked Christine to stay. I'll bet Christine was thinking "YES!".) I know the teachers appreciated Christine's selfless love and help in the classroom. She had a way of making each child feel so loved and special.
We have all heard the term STAY-AT-Home mom. Well the term STAY-AT-SCHOOL MOM was coined after Christine and the countless tireless hours she worked volunteering at Villa. Each moment with a smile on her face!! Christine was not only the main drama coordinator, she worked consistently with both of her girls' teachers each year on so many projects. She happily worked each Fall and Spring on Teacher Appreciation days creating floral arrangements and so much more. She usually didn't chair committees, instead Christine liked being "behind-the-scenes" and in that role, often put in as many or more hours as the chair person. Christine never hesitated to sign-up for an in-class activity or party where parent support was requested. My daughter, Phylly, said she thinks Christine chaperoned every single field trip she can remember...showing up with a smile on her face and a latte in her hand... or Perrier bottle depending on the time of day and time of year.
During Maddie's last year at Villa, Christine took on the task of eighth grade activity chair. In that roll she oversaw all of the 8th grade activities that year including graduation and auction participation. This is an immense job! She did all of this while Maddie was president of the student body. Christine did so much work to support Maddie in this position that same year. Christine never complained. She worked on each task with enthusiasm and energy. Her love for the children and the creative process were a marvel. Christine had a little bit of a reputation for going "overboard" when working on activities, but I know this exuberance was out of her love for the children and her love of making everything special. During that year, Christine mentioned to Ann Shanahan, her dear friend and cohort on many of these activities, how fortunate and blessed she felt to be a full time mom. This is just one of the many times Christine reminded us how to be thankful for such things and not to take life for granted.
Each school year, Christine could be seen walking her girls to school every morning and even walking them to their classroom door. She liked to stay until Maddie, Kaki or one of the teachers kindly kicked her out. At some point during middle school, the girls would let her know that it was ok to not walk them to their classroom and linger. Christine met them after school each day on the side walk and hung around until everyone had gone home, chatting with Kaki and Maddie's friends and their parents, eager to have any child to her house for a play date.
So let's talk about Christine's house...She and Tom have the home every child wants to play at. The activities are abundent......countless elaborate drama productions in the living room and backyard, baking projects in the kitchen - with no limit to the mess created in the process, creative dress up going on everywhere, the trampoline and water parks built in the backyard, DDR Max dancing in Tom's office, on and on.... Then there were the pets...SoDo and MoJo the gerbils, Snuffy the hamster, Panda the bunny and others... often out of their cages roaming the house amongst the piles of dress-up clothes. There is always decorating the house for the nearest holiday....even Valentines Day or a winter snow day. Christine made everyday special, holiday or not!
Her zest for daily life and her love for parenting was unmatched!
I spoke to Kimberly Burton, her dear friend, the afternoon Christine passed away. ...She told me that Chris had post-it notes with very special messages all over the house in her final months of life. ( Christine loved post-it notes as an organizational tool.) But these notes were different. They were reminders to make each moment count and to spend her remaining precious time doing the most important or worthwhile things. How ironic...I have always thought Christine was one of the rare women who didn't need reminding how to spend her time well. She was so wise about that. Kimberly said that if Christine had known 10 years prior to August 3, 2007 that she was going to pass away, Kimberly couldn't imagine what she would have done differently. I agree. Christine had an unusually wise sense of how best to spend her precious time. She had her priorities in line...her faith, her girls, Tom, her close friends and giving to others were what she focused on...she gave us all so much.
Recently Christine expressed to Tom that she wished she had spent more time in her garden with her flowers. Tom wisely reminded her that she had prudently been busy spending her time nurturing her two most beautiful flowers...Maddie and Kaki. She lovingly fertilized, weeded, watered and grew them these past 15 years.
During Christine's last night out among friends, she was talking to a couple of ladies who asked her about her treatments and how she was managing the pain associated with them. She couldn't deny that there was considerable pain but she quickly noted that she often thought of Jesus Christ on the cross in those times and remembered that her pain was much less in comparison.
During one of my last conversations with Christine...she was saying goodbye because she knew her time here was running short. In that conversation, I said that when she met Jesus, the first thing he would say to her was "Well done, good and faithful servant." (It's what came to mind.) When I got home I looked this passage up in my Life Application Bible. The commentary about this quote in chapter 25 of Matthew's Gospel says that "we are to use our time, talents, and treasures diligently in order to serve God completely in whatever we do. This means doing our daily work out of love for God." Well, to me, that sums up Christine!
All of us who knew her have been touched by her kindness and love for us. Near the end, many of us were trying to show our love for her or help her . We were desperate to reach out to her beautiful soul that had touched us so many times. Some times we were fortunate enough to get to make her a meal, walk with her or pray with her. Even in that time, Christine ministered to US! She remained focused on Christ and would ask us how WE were doing. She remained upbeat in her circumstances and conversations, rarely expressing despair or anger about her situation. I definitely knew her deep sorrow about leaving her family and friends, but I continually heard her acceptance of God's will and her faith in His love.
I will never be the same after knowing my dear friend in both health and sickness. She taught us how to live, she taught us how to be sick and die. She even got us ready for our impending grief through her words of hope and her living example that expressed faith in Jesus Christ. She is a rare soul that God put in our lives to teach us life's more important lessons. I will miss her dearly.