The following appeared in the news about Cristina. She sounds like a truly unique individual and a Swiss, who will be missed by so many.
Christina Bockius
Christina Bockius died Dec. 12, 2008, at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland from injuries sustained in a kiteboarding accident near La Ventana, Mexico. She was 43 years old.
A celebration of life will be held Thursday, Dec. 18, at 3:30 p.m. at the Columbia Gorge Hotel.
Christina was born in Sarnen, Switzerland, March 6, 1965, to Eduardo Gentilini and Heidi Knappitsch. When she was 1 year old, the family moved to Gruenau, Austria, an idyllic Alps village where she grew up.
She started kindergarten when she was 3 years old, and began skiing at the same age at the town ski hill, the Kasberg.
In the winter in Austria, kids ski in lieu of doing other sports, and ski racing is part of growing up. Christina was athletic from toddlerhood, and was a perpetual winner of ski races throughout her youth. As she grew up, she applied her athletic abilities to biking, swimming and volleyball.
At age 14, Christina entered Hauswirschafts Schule, a college of domestic science and home economics. After graduating, she entered school to become a dental assistant.
When she was 18, she moved to Wangen, Germany, where a good friend owned and operated a restaurant. She worked there for several months while she waited to enter a flight attendant training program for Lufthansa Airlines.
In 1983 she was hired as a flight attendant by Lufthansa. She lived and was based out of Munich. After a few months with the airline, she got a better offer from Delta Airlines, where she worked for the next 14 years.
In the fall of 1989, Christina took a trip to New Zealand to visit a friend. While motorcycling around the North Island, she met an American, Kelly Bockius from Hood River, at a backpacker’s lodge on the Coromandel Peninsula. The two fell in love at first sight. Kelly proposed to Christina two days later and they were married May 11, 1990, in Las Vegas.
The couple bought a house on Belmont Avenue on Hood River’s Westside, where they’ve lived ever since.
Within weeks of moving to Hood River, Kelly taught Christina to windsurf. She was a natural on the water and was soon sailing circles around everyone. Throughout the 1990s, Christina was a fixture wherever the wind was blowing — The Hatchery (and later Cheap Beach), Doug’s, The Wall, Rufus.
During winters, Christina rarely missed a powder day at Mt. Hood Meadows – rarely missed any ski day, for that matter. She would often brag – in her disarming German accent, flashing her big, warm grin – of getting first chair.
When Christina started kiteboarding, she all but gave up windsurfing and devoted her time to the sport she loved the most. She was a fixture at the Spit, always ready to help anyone launch or land their kite. Often on big days, there would be several guys and Christina launching big air near the White Salmon bridge.
Christina, a self-proclaimed “fun hog,” was fond of saying things like, “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time,” and “Life’s too short to be in a bad mood.”
During the spring and summer when she wasn’t on the river, Christina created and maintained extensive gardens at her house. She had multiple vegetable gardens, a huge strawberry bed and a wide array of flowers. She loved being a steward of the earth, and loved sharing her bounty – as well as her extensive gardening knowledge – with family and friends.
The only thing that gave Christina more passion than her sports was her two daughters. Sascha was born in 1998, and Nina in 2001. She quit her flight attendant job when Sascha was born in order to be a full-time mom, a job she relished.
She was a devoted mother in every way. She instilled in her girls her love for the earth and the outdoors, for friends and family, for travel. She took the girls to Austria to visit her family each year from the time they were infants. For Christina, no trip was too arduous, even with small children; they traveled to Europe, the Caribbean, Maui, Mexico, up and down the West Coast, to New England and on ski trips to Montana, Wyoming and elsewhere.
Christina spoke German, English, French, Italian and some Spanish. She seemed to make friends wherever she went – many of whom would end up coming to visit Christina and the family in Hood River.
Christina was deeply involved in the girls’ schools, from the time they started preschool at Bright Beginnings and later at Westside Elementary. She volunteered in the classroom, helped spearhead fund-raisers and was an advocate for arts in the schools.
Christina began making jewelry a few years ago and devoted part of her considerable and seemingly boundless energy to this new-found passion. She gave some of it away, but was recently making pieces to sell. She also recently began teaching jewelry-making classes in town.
Christina was dearly loved by so many in the Hood River community, as well as by so many people from around the world. Her door was always open to friends and strangers alike, from near and far. She took in stray cats, people — anyone in need of a meal, a laugh, a hug, a place to stay, a shot of Schnapps. Her infectious enthusiasm and unending stoke for life was not reserved for a few; it was a gift she gave to everyone she came in contact with.
Christina will be sorely missed, and remembered always, by the kingdom of people fortunate enough to have known her.
She is survived by her husband, Kelly Bockius, and daughters Sascha and Nina Bockius, of Hood River; mother Heidi Knappitsch of Gruenau, Austria; grandmother Julia Knappitsch of Gruenau, Austria; brothers Andreas and Martin of Gruenau, Austria; brother-in-law Sam Bockius and wife Tammy of Haiku, Hawaii; brother-in-law Eric Hixson and wife Terri of Hood River; brother-in-law Peter Hixson and wife Janet of Hood River; sister-in-law Heidi Hixson of Bend; six nieces and one nephew.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Columbia Center for the Arts, for the Christina Bockius Fund for children’s art education, P.O. Box 1543, Hood River, OR 97031. Contributions also can be made to Columbia River Bank to a fund established for a bench to be dedicated to Christina at Hood River Waterfront Park."
http://www.hoodrivernews.com/Lifesty.../101_obits.htm
another article about the accident appears at:
http://www.hoodrivernews.com/News%20..._Christina.htm