PEACE

Day 20 of 25 DAYS OF HUGGING:

Christina attended Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, IL, along with 20-some of her cousins; it was like their home away from home.  It also allowed her to branch out with a new group of friends, and she followed the family path to work at the Egg Store on Archer (if you’ve never been to the Egg Store, you have no idea what you missed in that old-fashioned neighborhood market!!!).

These were the years when Christina learned about support, support from people as her Mom began a long fight against breast cancer.  There was huge hugging to celebrate an early diagnosis of remission, and then there were hugs to support the troops when the cancer came back.  But Christina’s circle was growing fast, and there were even more people who got to share in those hugs and smiles from her new group to hug at Queen of Peace.

Christina and her cousin Laura at their high school graduation from Queen of Peace

Queen of Peace and its “brother school” St. Laurence came on hard times in the early 2000s.  Christina remained a supporter of “Peace” all those years, understanding what a close-knit group of people can mean to one other.  Through dedicated alumni and devoted staff, those two schools have merged and again are thriving as a place that can help produce more young men and women with the virtues that institution has to offer now.  To see how close Christina and her classmates remained is to understand what made Christina the empathetic and caring person she was, the great hugger.

For more on the remarkable St. Laurence and Queen of Peace revitalization story, please visit http://www.stlaurence.com/

Please consider a donation to CCCF: www.celebratingchristina.org/donate

One day, one goal, one huge hug.

MARIA PIERORAZIO

Day 24 of 25 DAYS OF HUGGING:

Christina was the second of three daughters born to Benny & Maria Pierorazio. Maria was a doting mother and a role model in every sense to her daughter Christina.  Maria taught her daughter compassion and empathy, along with how to be a mother and how to run a family.  Any time Christina was faced with a problem, inevitably she would say:

“my mother would do this…”

Maria and Benny Pierorazio on their wedding day

Maria was THE driving force in Christina’s life.

While there were many lessons Christina learned from her mother, Maria’s final lesson for her daughter was to teach her how to handle illness and death with all the grace only a true angel could impart. 

For when Christina’s suffering became unbearable and when the doctors put her on hospice, Christina kept the picture of her mother on a table or the nightstand right in front of her where she could see her mother and feel her counsel.

Christina was driven to help rid this world of that awful breast cancer that took her mother some 28 years earlier.  She offered counsel and encouragement to others suffering from the disease and always advocated for screening.  She was a huge supporter of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Center at Northwestern Memorial, and received all her screenings there after a false scare years ago.  She took great pride in strides we were making against that awful killer, and quietly relished the number of other young women who would now have joy of their mothers with them because we are making such progress against this form of cancer.  

This sense of purpose against cancer is what motivates all of us involved with CCCF.

For more information on Lynn Sage and all the great work they do, please visit: https://lynnsagefoundation.org.

And of course, please consider a donation to CCCF: www.celebratingchristina.org/donate

One day, one goal, one hug.