Sister Reflections ~Part 1
Read by Kristin's Sisters Keri Jones (left) Kori Unrau (right)
Kristin is the creative writer and editor in our
family… She’s also our public speaker, our picture taker, memory keeper, scrapbook
maker, handbag wearer, party planner, card writer, prayer sayer, Deal finder,
gift giver, tea totler, avid learner, book reviewer, technology learner, faith
sharer and the list goes on!
… It’s hard to summarize 42 years into one short
tribute, but we will do our best!
Kristin was the first child to our parents Jerry &
Evelyn. She was a perfect baby, an
adorable toddler, and she became ‘Krissy’ to those that loved her most! She had flaming red hair and perfect little
curls that became her trademark and something she became SO proud of. It set
her apart from the rest of us average people, and with the red hair came a HUGE
personality! She quickly wrapped
everyone around her little finger, and there wasn’t a stranger that looked away
without giving her a smile. She started talking early and had the gift of gab!
She would talk to anyone that would listen… Dad remembers walking with her down
Montrose street when she was just a little girl, she looked up at a stranger
with a great big smile and told him ‘Jesus loves you!’
Kristin was a very happy little girl and loved playing
with her baby dolls, and later with her real live baby dolls, her sisters. She was proud to show us off, but more than
once tried to send us back to wherever we came from! Although she loved her
baby dolls, they soon were replaced with books!
Her love for books & learning and reading & writing started at a
very early age and followed her into her teen years and high school.
Some activities Kristin enjoyed during her school
years were playing the organ, and the saxophone. She loved music but playing the organ wasn’t
cool, and after switching from MEI to Abby Sr she gave up the saxophone too. I’m pretty sure her saxophone is somewhere in
her house along with every other collectible or piece of memorabilia from her
childhood! Kristin accomplished SO many things and quite literally has a
tangible reminder of each and every accomplishment. It seemed natural that she would one day
become a scrapbooker since she couldn’t even throw out a piece of paper with a pencil
mark on it. Everything she had represented something important to her and she
could tell you the meaning behind every single item in her home!
Along with music, managing the senior boys basketball
team, and working through high school, Kristin had the opportunity to travel to
Japan on an exchange program. I remember
being so nervous that she was going ALL THE WAY to Japan on an airplane for the
very first time by herself! She had a fantastic time and she was so excited to
come home and tell us all about her adventure! She met new Japanese friends and
we were excited to host a Japanese student upon her return. Our student was
Miwa, and she formed a fast bond with Kristin!
They spent hours together and it was a sad day when she had to leave. Kristin made time to write letters to Miwa
and send little packages in the mail. It
was always an exciting day when a letter arrived for Kristin all the way from
Japan! Miwa came back to Canada to stay
with us several years later and she has stayed connected to this day.
When the internet was invented Kristin was THRILLED to
connect over email. She was the techie of our family and has always had the
latest gadgets. In her high school years
she was given a little red camera that she took wherever she went! This was the
birth of a new passion: Photography! Kristin had a gift of capturing everyday
moments on film! You can only imagine how drastically things changed when the
digital camera was invented. She went
from capturing a handful of photos to an armload and what a gift that has
become to her family and friends. (And by armloads I mean dump trucks full!)
Over the years when a new invention came along, she
had to have it! We are pretty sure that she owned Abbotsfords first iphone and
it’s still put to good use today!
Kristin was also the first in our family to have a laptop, a DSLR, an
ipod shuffle, and an ipad! Having all these gadgets made recovering from
surgeries, chemo, radiation, and complications a tiny bit easier. She couldn’t get up or go out so it gave her
a way to stay connected. When Kristin didn’t have the energy to speak you could
find her sending a quick text or forwarding a picture of her beloved monkey LaLaLuna
who was always getting into trouble.
Kristin was a very gifted student and she was always
on the honour roll. We rarely saw an assignment that didn’t have a giant red A+
on the front! Kori and I longed to have the perfect report cards like Kristin,
but sadly she got all the brains in our family! Only two short weeks ago
Kristin was having a rough time and asked me to talk to her to help distract
her for a moment. I asked her for a
topic, but it was Kristin-style which means I had absolutely no idea what she
was talking about! Instead, I decided to take the opportunity to confess to
Kristin that her writing was so good, that I had ‘borrowed’ some of it back in
grade eight. I needed to write a speech
for English class and it just so happened that she already had a really good
one written the year before! Of course
it was perfect: it was current, already on cue cards, and most importantly within
reach! Kristin NEVER EVER threw anything
out (did I mention that already?) and that was to my advantage. Unfortunately
my teacher knew that I couldn’t write that well, and I was busted! All these
years later Kristin had NO idea, and was shocked when I told her. She was so happy that the teacher had
recognized her writing and she was equally happy that he had failed me for
plagiarism! We had a good laugh about it!
Another story about our childhood that comes to mind
is the excitement of knowing that Kristins 16th birthday was coming
up and with it…. Her drivers license! We
anticipated ‘cruising’ up and down South Fraser Way with her! Grabbing some
cokes from Mcdonalds! Looking for boys!
It was very short lived as she wanted nothing to do with us and viewed
her license as a ticket to freedom! Anything to get away from us! On a funny
note, one of the first times she drove our parents car, she forgot to put it in
park. The car rolled down the driveway,
hit a planter, and came to rest across the street against the neighbour’s
house! We gave her a hard time about it,
but she learned a lesson and became a very good driver! We were very happy for
her when she bought her first car and she was so proud that she bought and paid
for it with her very own hard earned money!
A highlight of high school for Kristin was cooking
class!! She couldn’t wait to come home and recreate the recipes that she had
made at school. One day as we drove down
the hill near our house we could hear fire trucks and we joked that Kris was
probably burning down the house with her newly learned cooking skills! There
were no fire trucks in our driveway, but we walked in the door to billowing
smoke and inedible muffins! We shared a good laugh and were sure to tease her about
it for many years to come.
After Kristin became a wife and mother, we often got
phone calls around the dinner hour asking how to make this or that. Usually her
questions went something like this…. ’I want to make mom’s farmer sausage bean
soup, but I don’t have any beans or farmer sausage. What can I use instead?’ We would laugh and discourage her from making
that recipe and steer her towards a recipe that used the ingredients she had on
hand. Later we would find that she made
the first recipe with totally different ingredients and she was so disappointed
that it didn’t taste like moms!!! I don’t know that she ever found any joy in
cooking or baking but she always did her best to feed her family and never gave
up.
Growing up, our favourite family activity was camping.
For us it was all about carving sticks, roaming the campsite all day, and
burning things… but for Kristin it was ALWAYS about reading and Fishing!! She
was the one who was up at the crack of dawn to head out on the lake with Dad.
There was often a fish rivalry between her and all of the boys and when we
could hear the boat coming towards us we could tell by the look on her face who
caught the most fish! She never wanted
to come in empty handed! Having said that, she hated actually TOUCHING the fish
as she didn’t want to get smelly and covered in ‘Gore’. (her word, not mine!).
On one of our camping adventures, all of the kids we
were with climbed up a very steep mountainside.
It was almost vertical and we had nothing to grab onto; no trees, no
shrubs, no tall grass, or roots….nothing.
As tomboys, Kori and I were quick to join the climb. About three feet up
we noticed Kristin standing alone at the bottom and we immediately slid down to
her. If we climbed the hill without her, we would be in trouble... If we climbed the hill with her, we would
not be in trouble…. She rarely if ever got in trouble!!!! The two of us
encouraged her to climb with us and even stayed back with her to get her up the
hill. It never occurred to us that what
goes up must come down. That day we
learned that her fear of heights was very real! Once we got her to the top
there was NO amount of encouragement, bribes, or threats that would get her
down. Finally we had to call on the adults to help her get down.
Kristin’s love of camping followed her into her adult
years and Shawn and Kristin bought their first ‘Charlie Brown’ trailer (as she
liked to call it) shortly after they started their family. They quickly outgrew
it and purchased a larger model which they have used many times over. Kristin
loved being all cozy with her family which is a good thing because BC camping
often means being trapped inside. Smores, games, reading, swimming and anything
her family could do together topped her list of favorite things.
Ferndale Washington is one of the family’s favorite camping destinations and Kristin was so proud of both Braden and Connor for
learning to ride their bikes without training wheels at that campsite. Kristin loved sitting pool side with her
camera in hand watching Miranda swim for hours. This past July we spent some
time as a family where Kristin surprised us all by doing a ‘Cannon Below’ into
the freezing cold pool. I remember her telling me that one of her favourite
things to do is just float. On that same trip, Kristin spotted a teeny tiny
baby bunny running across the grass and suggested that Kyle catch it for us.
After he caught it, Kristin played show and tell with her new furry friend. She
passed it around so everyone could have a little cuddle. When it ended up back
in Kristin’s hands, she thought that it had peed on her. She flipped it over and exclaimed, ‘EWWWW
GORE’ and remained perfectly calm while everyone else burst into a fit of
laughter! Turns out the little guy had a run in with a lawn mower! This story has brought us all a ridiculous
amount of laughter over the past 7 months. I guess you had to be there!
Camping wasn’t the only get away that Kristin
enjoyed. She developed a love for
travelling early, and Shawn and Kristin enjoyed many trips together including
Banff, Europe, Nova Scotia, Quebec, New York, Niagra Falls, San Fransisco, San
Diego, and countless weekend get- aways to Whistler, Vancouver, and Victoria. Kristin and Shawn loved travelling as a
family and enjoyed visiting the dinosaurs in Drumheller, Mickey Mouse in Disneyland,
and all the awesome animals of San Diego Zoo! Most recently, our family made
some amazing memories as the 17 of us travelled to Florida for a trip of a
lifetime! We spent two weeks together and it truly was the happiest place on
earth! We enjoyed rides, and shows, and some VIP treatment, and we all enjoyed
eating our way around the parks too!!
Something that some of you already know about Kristin,
is how much she LOVED a party!! She could turn any boring event into a party.
Julia Child once said, ‘A party without cake is just a meeting’, but Kristin actually
lived it! She never showed up empty handed! And she always loved a crowd! She never even watched the superbowl or other
major sporting events but she looked forward to it because she knew there would
be a party somewhere! You knew you would find Kristin wherever friends and family
were gathered.
Kristin's love language was ‘Time spent’. And everybody
knew it! She loved being with her kids, and would often pull them out of school
for a ‘ditch day’ for some one-on-one time! She was so proud of her kids
accomplishments and was their biggest cheerleader! She encouraged them to dream
far beyond their own expectations, and then taught them to reach for those dreams!
Having alone time with Shawn was also very important
to Kristin but also very hard to do with four kids under foot! It often meant
taking advantage of short drives and a quick coffee or tea together. Kristin
absolutely loved going out on a date ~just the two of them.
Kristin also loved her extended family and her
friends, and would never just say ‘let’s get together’, instead she always made
a point of choosing a date, a time and a location to meet up for a chat over a ‘TALL
VANILLA CHAI TEA LATTE WITH TWO PUMPS MOCHA NO WHIP’! She didn’t ever want to miss an opportunity
to spend time with her family or friends, or even to make some new
friends. Kristin wrote on one of her
scrapbook pages ‘Life is way too short to miss the awesome ordinary everyday
stuff! She really did have a way of making that awesome ordinary every day
stuff feel SO important! She celebrated everyday life!!
...to be continued!
