Christine Doe Smith
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I met Chris Doe in fifth grade. Her family had just moved down the street from us from Blackpool, England. Being neighborly, I invited her to my house. She arrived in our driveway eating a large, whole raw onion, as you would an apple. My older brothers and I thought this was disgusting. (Chris and I laughed about it for years). Then she opened her mouth to speak and out came this heavy Northern England guttural Beatlesque accent that I could barely understand. We spent the first few weeks of friendship saying “what?” or in her case, “pardon?” I grew to love her accent, but by the end of junior high, her British tone had be replaced by something unmistakably Jersey.

We became fast friends at age ten. Nick, her older brother, hung out with my older brothers and our parents became friendly as well. The Doe and Cobb families were close for many years.

Christine and I shared our awkward adolescence together. She taught me to drink tea. In junior high, we crashed her brother's basement parties, where I'm sure little sisters were not welcome, and we learned more than we should have at a young age. Chris loved rock music and partying (as we did in the 70's). She adored her dog, Fred and going to the beach.

As it happens, she and I lost touch as we got older. I know she worked in computers. She endured a lot of heartache, losing her brother in an auto accident and then her father. She and her husband relocated to Costa Rica for a time and then she moved to Naples, Florida near her mother. She called me from Florida a few years ago just to reminisce. Christine Doe Smith passed away in 2005. I hope she had a good life.

Andree Cobb