Ruth Gloria Christiansen

It always started the same way, “Blessed Christmas!” Every year this simple message was given to family and friends in the form of a letter. Written with love and a conviction to a belief that our world is good, because so many people have worked hard to make it that way, and their efforts are worth celebrating. A belief that charity and kindness should be brought to the very top of any list of things each of us hold dear to our hearts. A message that hope and salvation all started with the birth of one child.

This was the message that all of us received, without fail, each December from Ruth Christiansen. She wanted to remind us all that the meaning of Christmas could be rediscovered and renewed by sharing sentiments of joy and hope with all the people in her life. Her annual letter was her message of love to each of us. It was her way to reassure us that despite anything happening in our lives today, there is a greater purpose for us all and everything will be okay.

Ruth truly believed that there is a guiding influence directing our daily lives and that belief was the strength that allowed her to overcome many obstacles during her life. Her faith was the foundation from which she built her spectacular life. We often marveled at Ruth for her soft spoken and gentle manner. It was her personality from the start, and practiced throughout her life, to never hold hate in her heart, and never say anything unkind to anyone. By living her life with these guiding principles, she taught us all how to be better people. Ruth consistently and effortlessly demonstrated what it means to be a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and friend to so many of us. None of us that knew her could deny the light that she brought into our lives. This light, that has burned so bright for us, started over 95 years ago.

She was born Ruth Gloria Kemper on March 5th, 1925 in Dayton Ohio. Her parents Harold and Janet met and fell in love after Janet had been a music student to Harold. Ruth was born soon after the two were married in 1924. Along with her two siblings, Janet Elaine, and Virginia “Ginny” Alice, Ruth had a happy childhood in Dayton as the daughter of a musician/bookkeeper father and home maker mother. She had many fond memories of her life as a child. Ruth would tell stories of the influence her extended family had on her upbringing. The support and love she received from her grandparents and aunts in her youth were fundamental in molding Ruth into the caring and devoted person that we all knew her to be as an adult.

It is to our great benefit that Ruth gifted us with a Memoir that catalogues her time spent as a child. It is through this looking glass that we see all the ingredients that go into the making of an amazing life. We understand that each life is the accumulation of those experiences that shape our thinking. Ruth lived a life enriched by all those moments of happiness and sorrow, love and loss. We are fortunate that she had such an incredible memory and was able to map out for us, her journey, so that we might follow, in our own way, a path that gave her all the answers to the mystery of life. For her that adventure started in her youth with a belief in the meaning of Christmas.

Ruth Christiansen departed on her new journey on November 10th. We are all deeply saddened to say goodbye to her and at the same time we cherish every moment we spent with this amazing person. To celebrate her and honor one of her most beloved Holidays, we want to put together another Christmas Letter from Ruth. She loved us all with every ounce of her being. Without judgement or prejudice, she

saw in each of us the capacity for good. She believed in humanity the same way that she knew God believed in her.

That love for us is shared each year in her letter written to family and friends. I encourage each of you to contribute what you think about Christmas, what Ruth meant to you, and most importantly, what we meant to her. Because above all, Ruth’s Christmas Letter was about those things that made her life worth living. To her children and grandchildren: it brought great joy to Ruth to put in writing how proud she was of each of us.

(Contribution by grandson, Tony Christiansen)

Ruth Christiansen: How she lived

On November 10, 2020 the world lost an extraordinary woman. Ruth Gloria Christiansen was the first-born daughter of a bookkeeper/pianist-father and a homemaker-mother in Dayton, Ohio. She enjoyed a wonderful childhood with two younger sisters, playing baseball in the streets, watching silent movies in the theatre where their father played the piano, and making wonderful life-long friends. Her father tried to encourage her to practice piano, but she would rather be outside playing and was known as a tomboy. She did, however, thoroughly enjoy her father’s amazing talent and loved to hear his fingers fly across the piano keys. Her favorite was Moonlight Sonata. Just before she passed, we listened to a tape of her father playing the piano and it gave her great joy.

Along the way Ruth met a handsome young man, named Gene Meyer. They fell madly in love with each other. As the war raged on, Gene enlisted in the Air Force and was being trained as a pilot. During a leave from the base, they were married and Ruth went to live with Gene near the base. They rented some rooms from an older couple and were happily starting their family. Then a training accident occurred at the base and Gene died in an airplane crash. Young, devasted Ruth went back to Dayton to live with Gene’s parents. They helped take care of her while waiting for the birth of the baby. Afterward they helped take care of little Gene, while Ruth went to school at the University of Dayton where she received her degree. One of the highlights of her time at UD was being voted as Homecoming Queen.

Then a young and single pastor, by the name of Elmer Christiansen, was called to serve at her church. After many tries, Elmer (or Christy as he was affectionately known) wore Ruth down and she accepted the request for a date. After several such dates, watching Christie skip up the stairs in his excitement to see her, and after seeing him interact with little Gene, Ruth fell in love again. Ruth and Christy were married in 1949 and Christy adopted Gene as his own son. Then came sisters, Stephanie and Connie. Along with Molly, the boxer dog, our little family was complete.

We lived for several years in Columbus, Ohio. Then Ruth started having medical problems that were finally diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. After a bed-ridden Ruth willed herself to walk again, the family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, so that the dry climate might help Ruth with her diagnosis. In the meantime, Christy hired his sister-in-law, Cleo, to come live with us, take care of the household, and more specifically take care of Ruth, while he fulfilled his duties as a pastor at a local Lutheran church. Aunt Clean-o, as Ruth’s children affectionately called her, was a joy to have with the family. Cleo helped Ruth regain her independence and subsequently left to care for someone else. Ruth, now in remission, still had some left-side loss of strength, which improved over time but never did fully come back. In her later years, she did almost all her typing with one hand.

After four years, Christy received a call to serve as pastor to a church in Torrance, California. The entire family moved to California, including a newly married Gene and bride, Carmen. Ruth busily took care of her family, served in many capacities in the church, and taught her daughters how to sew their own clothing as she did. She took classes in tailoring and made some of Christy’s suits. Once the children were out of the house, she went back to school and received two other degrees while working. She ended up working her way up in a chemical company from secretary to the Quality Control department, where she remained until she retired.

Ruth and Christy enjoyed a wonderful, loving marriage. You could not ask for better role models for their three children. Ruth and Christy loved to travel and went on many cruises and tours all over the world. They even took their children on an amazing cruise through the Panama Canal, which also included other family and friends. In 1992, Christy passed away, leaving Ruth a widow once again. As always, Ruth, in her quiet but strong fashion, filled her life with sewing classes, doll collecting, church activities, bridge card games, and get-togethers with her children and other family and friends. She also continued traveling with family and friends for many years.

In 2010, Ruth broke her spine in several places by trying to hold up an entire shelf in the bottom freezer to retrieve a container of ice cream that had fallen behind it. She ended up in the hospital having surgery to fuse those areas of her spine. Needless to say, this was a life changing event that started with her living in her home in Long Beach with caregivers, to moving into the San Fernando Valley (of the Los Angeles area) in order to live closer to her daughter, Stephanie. We found a lovely two-bedroom apartment in a senior residence (Fairwinds), that had a lively group of residents. It was just the right fit for Ruth, who found many good friends to share her time with, lots of great activities, and the second bedroom allowed out-of-town family to stay there with her. After a fall in the apartment, she had her very favorite caregiver, Mary Ann, come live with her, and the two remained there until her death.

The year 2020 brought new challenges due to COVID-19. The residents of Fairwinds were required to remain in their apartments and meals were delivered to their door. With the numerous restrictions that came with COVID, all other activities were cancelled. No visitors were allowed access to their loved one. These restrictions affected Ruth’s mental and physical well-being and her decline was apparent. At this point some members of her family were allowed to be with her and spend some memorable moments with her in the time she had left. She passed away peacefully at home.

Ruth is survived by:

Her children: Gene Christiansen, Stephanie Truex, and Connie Fischl

Her grandchildren: John Christiansen, Tony Christiansen, Brett Christiansen, and Jessica Truex

Her great-grandchildren: Cameron Christiansen and Abigayle Christiansen

Her great-great-grandchild: Aurelia Christiansen