Yesterday, April 22, 2024, my "angel on earth" died.
Chris lived two lives in his 53 years. The first twenty-two years were spent in Sahuarita, AZ where his dad and I were teachers. Chris was a joy when he was a child. He loved to play basketball, baseball and he was a wrestler. He played Dungeons and Dragons endlessly. And he loved to sing. He was asked to join the Tucson Boys Chorus, but declined when he found out it would interfere with his sports. He had a wicked sense of humor, loved music and poetry and gave us fits as a rebelling teenager. He went to Pima College and the University of Arizona intending to become a teacher, but in his junior year, his life changed. All our lives changed.
On January 1, 1993, Chris was severely injured in a motor vehicle accident. He was in the back seat and was the only one injured. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was not expected to survive, but he did. From that time until his death, he was a non-speaking quadriplegic. We have taken care of Chris since that accident and the last 31 years have been a blessing and a trial. Taking care of a quad is not easy, but we learned on the job and besides, Chris had such “joie de vivre”, we never felt it was too big of a burden. He was full of smiles and love for the simple pleasures of his life, and he brought joy to everyone he encountered. All his caregivers loved him because he was so happy and full of life. Chris lived in the present. Each moment was a gift, and he was blissfully unaware of all the bad parts of life that most of us have to endure. Even up to the end, he continued to look like a twenty-year-old because he was untroubled about the past, present or the future.
Chris is survived by his mother, Elise Hesser; his stepfather, Jessie Toles; his brother John W. Hesser (Dena); his sister, Carol Dempster (Larry); his aunt, Ann Littrell (Ed) and his cousins: Zack, Erik, Sara and Jonathan. He is proceeded in death by his father, John Wesley Hesser.
Chris is no longer here on earth, but anyone who knows him will feel his presence because he is all around us. He is now “one with the universe”.
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