On Oct 10 of 1971 , Sarah Christine Polk known to us as "Christi" showed up a little late and just stuck with that trend for 49 years and 25 days. If you know anyone more strong-willed and stubborn, I feel for you. Her stubbornness and tenacity made her a challenge to live with and a force to be reckoned with. A receptionist that worked her way into success in sales, she loved the cold call and built tremendous success in business for quite some time. She never met a stranger and people rarely told her no for anything.

She was more fun than should be legal. Sometimes, she actually was more fun than is legal but as she would say, "that's none of your business!" If you ever wanted to know a beautiful lady who would ask you to help her so she didn't mess up her nails but then invite herself to go fishing with you right after... she was your gal.

She was the original athlete in the family. Christi excelled in volleyball, cheer, softball, and her absolute favorite - basketball. A rabid Braves fan, there is probably a 10 year stretch of teams of which she met every player in person, dragging us all over to games and meet and greets. Not in their strong years either. She loved college football but had horrible taste in favorite teams. On the flip side, there were not many she didn't like either. I don't think she missed more than a couple of home games in my last couple of years of basketball.

Cats, oh her love for cats. We all expected her to be the crazy old cat lady but, alas, that isn't happening. Tigger was the star in her world for so long. As a Jr in HS, our pregame locker room talk was interrupted by our friend to tell me that Tigger, who had been missing for a few days, had returned home...really?!? This cat could talk and he also liked to draw blood. He was crazy and crazy about Christi. To hear them communicate was super cute, and super weird. No one that met him could dispute his ability to say "love you" to Christi. While she would go on to take in or feed or have or whatever it is you do with cats, none were ever her Tigger.

She loved hard and was hard to love. She loved and accepted you no matter what. Her family was her world, no matter what. She made things more fun... when she finally showed up. She loved music and was a blast to go to concerts with. She didn't care who was playing, if you invited her, she said yes. If you liked your vehicle, she was the LAST person you let drive it. Seriously, she totaled more vehicles than most of the family has ever owned combined. Thanks to her creative ways of destroying vehicles, like driving around barricades into a flooded road, she was never injured in them. Consistency, yep, she even managed to hit some of the same random things, repeatedly.

In a bitter turn of irony, this girl with the heart of gold, infectious smile and laugh, with a heart that loved so fiercely, her heart is what took her from us. She was afflicted with an infection that hit her heart the hardest. She tried, she fought like hell but the bacteria won, we lost. We lost Christi. Our mom, our sister, our daughter, our cousin, our friend - she is gone. The girl who's never been early to anything left us all wondering why she left us all so early. The ONLY thing she ever did too early is to leave us all behind. I know mom had some choice passive-aggressive words for her for doing so, before they hugged, kissed, and reconnected for eternity. For 49 years and 24 days, she kept that streak alive... we're all so very sad that on the last day, she broke her streak. Oh, how I wish she were way, way, waaaay late for just this one thing in her life...

Fare thee well Chrisit, our mom, our Sis, and your daddy's Princess.