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| Christy LaPan's Senior Picture as given to me by Christy. |
Today is Christy LaPan's birthday. Christy was a friend of mine in high school and she was taken from us way too early. When I was in the 8th grade, I used to talk to Christy about going out with me. She told me she wouldn't date me until I was taller than her. I loved her energy and sense of humor.
She had a lot on her plate for such a young woman. She was one of a handful of black students in a rural/suburban school dominated by white kids. Her eyesight was also failing her. She needed oversize textbooks at times in order to be able to process the texts. She faced challenges with the bravery and conviction of someone much older. Self-possessed and yet open to others, she defined for me what it meant to be a class act.
In celebration of her 38th birthday, I give you all this...
And this...
The last video. Christy and her "Yo Mama" jokes...
What a lovely post about Christy, Kyle. She and my daughter, Kristi, were great friends throughout their school years starting in 1st grade at Carus Elementary. I remember the last time I talked with Christy which was just after she returned home from her first college semester in the South. I remember being very concerned that she wasn't going to connect with her Black heritage like she had hoped. And, 5 months later...I was just devastated when I heard the news!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. It was hard for all of us when that day arrived. Christy and I had gone on a date just a couple months prior. I was finally taller than her once I got into college. That was the last time I saw her.
DeleteI am eternally thankful for this post. I was a personal friend of Christy (who sang at her homegoing) and moved shortly after her passing. Returning to Portland after almost 20yrs and not being able to find any public records, news articles or anything except a burial site on my friend truly wounded me in a deep place. To think that her memory could just be relegated to the realm of the forgotten kind of pissed me off. Then I found this, and it honestly renewed my faith in humanities capacity for compassion. Love conquerors all. Christy knew and believed this, and you Kyle my good sir just confirmed not only that it still exists but that love is an infinite principal. Because of this truth she remains alive thru us and the love we all felt towards her.
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