Her Obituary

***I loved how this came out! Nora and Vanessa did her proud.

Donna Christine “Christy” Allen Ackerson passed away peacefully January 23, 2024 in Francis, Utah from complications of lung cancer. She was surrounded by family, as well as her devoted cat Sonia.

She was born on August 1, 1947, in Glendale, California. She was the second child of eleven born to A. Lester and Marilyn Allen. She spent the first 7 years of her life in Southern California, before her family moved to Orem, Utah in 1954. As a child she enjoyed climbing trees, hugging cats, picking cherries, sewing, playing chess, and reading. She attended Sharon Elementary School, Lincoln Junior High, and Orem High School. She graduated from Orem High School in 1965 as a National Merit Scholar, as well as valedictorian. She attended Brigham Young University and graduated in 1978 with a masters degree in English. She participated in the BYU study abroad program in 1968, and spent 3 months in Saltzburg, Austria.

Christy served as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the West German Mission from 1968-1970. The deepening of faith from her mission remained strong her whole life. The missionaries she served with are some of her favorite people and were lifelong friends.

Christy married Charles “Chuck” Ernest Ackerson on June 2, 1972 in the Provo Utah temple. She and Chuck spent the next 40 years of their marriage in West Valley City, Utah where they raised their 9 children. They retired to Francis, Utah in 2013.

Christy enjoyed good music, which included both playing the piano and teaching piano lessons. She taught for over 36 years, teaching her own children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, neighbors, and members of the Heber Senior Center. She developed and compiled her own piano curriculum using it to reach those who never had an opportunity to learn and play.

She enjoyed any and all types of projects, no matter the size or scope. She could frame and drywall a basement, install a sprinkler system, dig a basement by hand, bake & decorate a wedding cake, and sew an elaborate Halloween costume. She loved the outdoors, and when the air was clean, she preferred digging in the yard or hiking to Rocky Point at the family cabin.

She had an insatiable desire to learn and educate herself. She was a lover of good books and acquired an impressive and beautiful collection of classic books. She taught herself Spanish, Italian, and at the time of her death, Old English. She loved playing chess and was always a formidable opponent. She loved writing, and kept a regular journal. This became the basis for her compilation of journal entries known as “The Ackerson Kids Grow Up”. She also helped compile and edit family history books with family members. She had much to share with her beloved local chapter of the DUP. As a final activity for her grandchildren, she started a monthly book club, which continued right up to the time of her passing.

Christy is survived by her husband Chuck, and children John (Heather), Nora Mair (James), Vanessa Sutton (Trent), Tom (Kim) Allen, Monica Prendergast (Neil), Donna Hawkins (Bevan), Sharon Thacker (Seth) and Paul (Stefanie) as well as 35 grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, Lester and Marilyn Allen and her granddaughter, Charlotte Jane Mair.

Our family expresses gratitude to Dr. Mark A. Lewis, her oncology doctor at the IHC Cancer Center, who sustained her life miraculously. We have comfort in her passing and feel, as she knew, she is now where time and suffering do not exist.

A memorial service will be held on February 13, 2024 at 11:00 am at the Francis, Utah chapel located at 387 West Last Frontier Lane. Family will receive guests an hour prior to the service.

We'll talk to you later, Mom.

Words cannot describe what it's like to lose your mom.  As she was getting more and more sick, I kept thinking, oh, she'll bounce back like she always does.  This is just a bug.  She'll be back to her usual self in no time.  But then, she wasn't getting better.  I still remember that Sunday evening, at their house, when she barely opened her eyes to tell me that it was time for Anna to find a new piano teacher.  I almost lost it, but had to bottle it down because... it's what we do.  Mom was an expert at controlling her emotions and we are all expected to do the same.  It was hard to know what to do.  Dad didn't know what to do.  Luckily, I have the most amazing sister who knew exactly what to do.  She flew across the country, got mom admitted into the hospital, set up hospice, got her back home, and hardly left her side for the next 48 hours until she passed.  She was home, she was comfortable, she ate ice cream, and then just went to sleep.  I wasn't expecting her to go so fast.  It was such a tremendous blessing that Sharon was there with Dad, once again, knowing exactly what to do.  Once I came, it felt like there wasn't much else to do.  We ate chocolate from her hidden stashes, watered her house plants, and drove to the cabin for a memorial snowshoe up to Rocky Point.  It was a draining day, but I still had to go home and carry on with life, like we all have to do, like she would want us to do.  It's been a hard thing to process.  Her memorial won't be for another couple weeks.  I'm sure my bottled-up emotions will leach out by then.  I miss her already.  Who will teach Anna piano?  Who will give me advice on how to fix holes in my wall?  I know that she's finally out of pain and in a better place, but it's a hard adjustment all of us left behind.

Whenever we spoke on the phone, the last thing she would always say was, "We'll talk to you later".  

We sure will!

I was tasked with finding a suitable picture for her obituary.  Here were my top 3:

Cousin Ski Day 2024

I'm so glad we were able to make this work!  The cousins are all getting bigger and busier, and into real life.  I'm happy that some were able to make it to Deer Valley for a day of sunshine and snow.  It made me appreciate my little kids and how I still have control of their lives, even forcing them to wake up early enough to get a decent parking spot at the Gondola.  It worked.  This was Tommy's first "cousin ski day" and he couldn't be happier, even though we eventually broke off from the rest of the group because he skis so slow.  He also noticed that he was the only one without poles and let me know his frustration.  Tough.  Maybe next year.  We all met up eventually for our usual upstairs luncheon and had lots of fun swapping treats and ski stories from the morning.  It was nice to not have anything to rush back to, since all our kids were with us.  We were all having fun!  Imagine that.

Cousin Ty Gets Married!!!

We sure love cousin Ty.  And we REALLY love St. George.  When Ty announced he was getting married in St. George, it was the best of both worlds.  We drove down Thursday evening, barely making it in time for the family dinner, having to make a quick stop at the local car wash first.  You could look around the tell which cars just rolled in from up north.  It was THAT bad!  Anyway, the smoked meat was delicious and cans of caffeine were plentiful.  It was fun to get to know (fiance) Drew and her family.  What a wonderful place to grow up.  

Friday was a beautiful day to get married.  The weather was perfect.  We felt so special being a part of it.  The St. George temple has always been one my favorites and it was so neat to witness a sealing inside it.  We didn't stick around very long for pictures... the kids were back at the hotel, watching disney channel for 2 straight hours.  We took them to the children's museum to kill some time before the ring ceremony and reception.  I though Anna and Dallin would be bored with the children's museum, but they could've easily stayed longer.  We had to get cleaned up and over to the reception center.  The ring ceremony was cute, but the party really started when they brought out the reception food:  sweet cereal breakfast bar!  My kids were in heaven.  Cake-bread, donuts, and 4 KINDS of sweet cereal = major sugar high!  Dallin loosened up enough to start dancing.  Drew and Tommy kept taking turns in the "vw bus" photo booth, and Anna caught the bouquet... again.  She's 3 for 3 now.  We stayed 'till the bitter end, beating out every other relative with small kids.  Hawkins energy!  Luckily, they all slept well that night.

We had some time to kill the next morning, so we went swimming in the hotel pool before heading out to Snow Canyon for some hiking.  We definitely could have stayed longer, so now I'm looking into camping there for spring break in April.  I was not looking forward to the drive home.  Leaving the warm St. George sunshine, we drove home, straight into a blizzard.  It snowed several inches while we were gone and then snowed all night.  St. George was what I was dreaming about though, redrock and sand.  We'll be back soon!