Cristi’s Story
Cristi and Penni with the kids.
It was a mild day in late autumn when I received the phone call that forever changed the lives of everyone who loved Cristi. Mid-morning, Thursday, December 10, 1998, the phone rang and it was Cristi. “Mom” she said. “I am on my way to the hospital. I have to have surgery right away.”
With those few words, our world changed forever. Four days later, we learned it was not a virus or an infection or even a heart condition, but cancer.
At thirty-one years of age, Cristi had never been sick. Although we were all terrified at this news, she bravely began the long struggle with chemotherapy. Her husband Lance never left her side and together they endured the humiliation of chemo.
Cristi with her two children - during her illness.
We watched as this disease and the treatment changed Cristi from a vibrant young woman into a debilitated shell of her former self. Through it all, she never lost her faith, her grace, or her love for family and friends.
Twelve months and twenty-six days after that first phone call, the death angel came and escorted her to her home in Heaven.
When Cristi died, leaving a husband and two small children, the joy left my heart and I could not look forward. But as I recall from the words of a poem by Helen Deutsch, ‘We have known many things….the death of a child and the bitter lesson that a heart which breaks can mend itself again.’
Later that same year our younger daughter Penni married and quickly filled our lives with three more beautiful grandchildren. And the joy returned.
One day a very dear friend visited me with a life insurance payment on Cristi that we had forgotten about. At first I refused to take it and when I did, I would not spend it. It just did not seem right somehow to spend her life insurance on material things. Slowly, the idea of creating this foundation grew within me and I intend to take this very small amount and see it grow into an enterprise that Gaylon & I can leave in the care of Cristi’s sister Penni and her children Madison and Payten.
The Autry Children today.
Our mission is to see cancer eliminated worldwide through research, education and treatment. This foundation is my dream, my hope, my heart’s desire. It is my reason for living, the essence of my being. It is what God left me on earth to do. It is what I will leave as an inheritance for my child and grandchildren.
Frieda
02/14/09
