Kristi Hanson

Let me start with reminences of growing up on Magnolia Avenue. My family lived at 5330 and Kristi's at 5314. Kristi sat me down when I was about five years old. She decided to tutor me on reading and writing. I can remember the kitchen table at 5314 , when she patiently taught me to print within the ruled lines and borders of the composition paper. I was unruly, but reading. I learned, though. Finally, to write legibly, within the lines ruled. It served me well in the first grade when Mrs. Hoseman sat the pupils around a semicircular to take turns reading out loud to the class. I was a bit ahead of the class and had a sense of confidence. Early glimpses and influences skipped over to the Hanson's cottage in Indiana, which was virtually a childhood paradise. The fondest of memories of that wonderful place are firmly set. We, the Falk family, were invited to that place on weekends and much more. The bold and adventurous Kristi would climb the Sycamore tree right outside the kitchen to its highest reaches swaying to and fro in order to survey the territory. Thats all it took for the rest of us to follow her example, climbing up the tree, branch by branch, to its highest reaches swaying to and from. Of course, Mom took notice, yelling out "YOU COME DOWN FROM THERE, RIGHT NOW"! Then, catching frogs, fighting bugs, running along the paths by the river, swimming at Cook's Island. The rumbling bridge...Yes , we traversed atop the bridge. How about the machine-gunned gangster model T? These are just glimpses of growing up and I think about Kristi's influences beginning in childhood. I'm not sure if, in a certain sense, my family adopted Kristi or she adopted us, but I think it was mutual and, by any estimation, Kristi is always a member of the family. In this difficult process, it is comforting to contemplate Kristi's essence and her effect on others.