I learned this week of the passing of my dear friend Christian. I just wanted to write down a few highlights of our friendship and how important he is to me.
We met during "Y" week before classes started at BYU freshman year. They set up our apartment of girls with a group of guys to learn about the school. We played field games together, went on tours and saw shows together. Most groups disbanded soon after school started, but ours stayed close and we really enjoyed one another. We often played cards until it was time to kick the boys out.
We all compared schedules to see if we had any classes together. Christian and I had our first two classes together - Philosophy and then Honors Book of Mormon right after. They were clear across campus from each other and it was really hard to make it there with only ten minutes in between. He had the benefit of being a full foot taller than I was. :) After a few weeks we both learned that we had received our AP credit from high school and we didn't need the philosophy class anymore, so we both dropped it. Our professor for the Book of Mormon class was Christian's uncle and he was one of my favorite professor's of all the classes I took at BYU. He invited us to his home on several occasions. He told us that we could do art projects in lieu of writing papers and he loved the ones that I did. I always got a 100 on my projects and Christian was always mad because he would get a 97 on his paper.
Christian and I developed a very close friendship and we did just about everything together during that year. Some of our favorite things were the International Cinema, the Varsity theater (where they used to edit R rated movies), dances, sports events, art shows, etc. We didn't have cars, so we mostly spent our time on campus doing whatever was happening there. We found that we had a lot in common and connected on a level that I haven't experienced with anyone else. I remember that I could just wish for him to call and the phone would ring... every time.
While Christian was on his mission in Italy my family met up with him for a day. He was serving in Modena at the time, which is the home town of Pavarotti. He held an annual concert there called Pavarotti and Friends, which happened to fall on the same day we were there. He had permission to attend so we all went together. The "friends" included Eric Clapton, Jon Secada, Liza Minnelli, Elton John, Sheryl Crow and Joan Osborne. Some of the other groups were really popular in Europe, but we hadn't heard of them. My dad asked Christian to help us find a hotel that night, mentioning that we wouldn't mind paying a little extra to have air conditioning. We're not exactly sure what happened, but the hotel ended up being super fancy and costing a LOT more than we had in mind!
Here he is the next morning giving my dad directions as we headed to Switzerland (another story entirely!).
After his mission we were both at BYU for another year. We decided we would always take a religion class together while we were both at BYU and did that consistently. This picture was taken at a surprise party they threw for me as a mission send off as I headed out for Germany.
My mom flew out to be with me as I went through the temple and a few sweet friends joined us, including Christian. He and my roommate Amber were the witness couple that day. We had several special temple visits after that. One day we drove out to the Salt Lake temple together. After our session someone came up to him in the Celestial room and asked him to be a witness for a sealing. We happily obliged and when we got there we learned that it was a family being sealed. They had lost a sister and they asked me to stand in her place. What a wonderful spirit was there with us that day.
While I was in the MTC he was a teacher there. It was so nice to have someone there that I knew. I turned 22 the first week I was there and I was feeling a little lonely. I remember thinking it would be really neat if he taught his class the birthday song in Italian and they came and sang it to me. That is exactly what he did! He only had one student at the time, so it was a lovely duet.
I had a huge sendoff at the airport between the MTC and Germany. I was expecting just Dayna (who got married while I was in the MTC - so hard!) and Christian, but my dad surprised me by flying in and my aunt Pam and her family had moved to Provo while I was in the MTC as well. Dayna's parents also happened to be in town, so I had quite the crowd! What a wonderful day that was.
(that is his own arm by the way - he is also a goof ball and always making me laugh!)
The last time I remember seeing him was his wedding day. Dayna and I attended his reception and I was glad to see him so happy. I know that he will be missed dearly by his wonderful family. He adored his siblings and parents and I'm sure he felt the same about his wife and 3 children.
I hope we will have a chance to meet up on the other side and catch up.
