She drew you in with her smile and encouraging nature; however, it was her iconic laugh that made you friends forever

Northern Nevada Chapter of the American Red Cross: We will miss you Christine, 

Our beloved Christine Chapman recently passed away. Christine started as a volunteer in the Reno/Sparks area, where her “can do” attitude and friendliness quickly made her one of the chapter’s key volunteers. She next spent a year as an Americorps/Vista volunteer, where she was assigned to work with the Red Cross as an assistant to the DPM. After her family moved to Elko, she continued to help the Red Cross whenever health and travel permitted.

The following article is about her first deployment for Hurricane Sandy. Christine deployed four times for that disaster, going out in disaster assessment, ERV/mobile feeding, warehousing/box truck driver, and casework.

Christine Chapman was in the first wave of Red Cross volunteers who arrived in West Virginia after Hurricane Sandy hit. She was assigned to disaster assessment.

Paired with Bob, a volunteer from Montana, the team was responsible for doing street sheets for an entire county. [Street sheets are the house-by-house or apartment unit-by-unit assessments of damage.] Most of the damage they viewed came from heavy snow and winds in the mountains.

“We saw lots of collapsed roofs. People couldn’t get out of their communities because roads were impassable,” Christine remembers. “But they didn’t want outside help.”

One day, Christine and Bob spotted smoke on a hilltop. Drawing upon Christine’s Disaster Action Team experience, they headed toward the smoke and found that a house was on fire. The driveway was too steep and muddy for their vehicle, so they lugged a case of water up to the scene. Firefighters were still putting out the last of the blaze.

“The elderly man who lived there had been trying to light his oil furnace. Instead, the furnace caught on fire, and soon the whole house was destroyed,” Christine says. “The only thing the man was worried about was his medicines. I talked to the firefighters. One of them went inside. The medicine cabinet had started to melt from the heat of the fire, but he was able to open it and the medicines were o.k.”

“The owner took his pills in half-portions,” Christine continues. “I got a pair of gloves and cut his pills in half for him.”

While the firefighters were enjoying the water Christine and Bob had brought them, they asked, “How’d you get here so quickly? We hadn’t called you yet!”

Christine smiled at them. “We’re the Red Cross. We’re always Red Cross ready.”

Chris was like a mother to me.. When I came to Nevada, she was working for Fedex, then I was hired with Fedex. She was having a bad day and she said I walked up and gave her my name and number before I left for training in Salt Lake. There started our friendship and great nights of laughter till you couldn’t breathe. Chris and family took me in at a time of depression, but it ended up being the greatest memories of happiness. Thank God, the phone calls didn’t cost by the minute or hours because about 2 or 3 in the morning we would say goodbye.. I learned so much, from  her.. Chris you will forever be in my heart, but also in my future in eternity worshiping our Lord and Savior together, Love you girlfriend!!!

Christine was such a beautiful soul who will be deeply missed by her friends and family. Such a Charismatic, fun loving, giving woman. My dear friend of 45 years. We shared laughter and tears. She battled through such deep heartache and had the most loving relationship with her daughter Caitlynne and found love, peace and contentment with her husband Jimmy. My deepest condolences go out to them both. 

My dear friend Chrissy. A friendship that spanned 55 years,  filled with life’s experiences, separated by miles, but connected by love and friendship, especially in the last few years. Though I miss her everyday, I am truly thankful that we left nothing unsaid….I know she’ll be there to greet me when i leave this world and we’ll pick up where we left off, so until that day…..goodnight my dear friend, I love you……Rhonda 

Christine is my BFF! I miss her every day...we either saw each other or talked just about every day. She was the BEST Best Friend.

She was the best mom in the world, she was taken way to early, but she will always be with us.