CHRISTINE "CHRIS" STATHERS

Christine "Chris" Stathers, age 44, of Kamloops, BC, took her final curtain call on December 2, 2025. Born in Vancouver, BC, to Robert Stathers and Catherine Rublee, Chris was encumbered but not entrapped by cystic fibrosis. She rejected the supposed limitations of CF and spent a happy and active childhood and youth in Penticton, dancing, singing, skiing, swimming, rock climbing, competing in triathlons, and wrangling her four younger siblings: Trish, Bill (d.), Dave, and Woody. After a formidable high school career in academics and arts, Chris went on to UBC to study music (opera/vocal performance) and archaeology. While at UBC, she was heavily involved with the Varsity Outdoors Club (VOC), where she served as vice-president (2003-2004) and made many lifelong friendships. She also met her husband, Nick Waber, there. Chris's university career was truncated by failing lungs. In January 2009, she received a double-lung transplant in Vancouver; a gift of life that lasted nearly 17 more years! Following her transplant, she and Nick moved to Victoria, back to Vancouver and ultimately to Kamloops. Chris brought her creativity, joy, and determination to each new situation (along with her menagerie, caviid and canid alike), and pursued her passions: designing, sewing, and making art. Her health was an increasing challenge throughout her last decade, but Chris never relented. She rallied and scrapped her way back from every setback. Almost every setback. On December 2nd, she passed peacefully, in the Marjorie Willoughby-Snowden Hospice in Kamloops. Twenty years ago, facing the decline of her CF lungs, Chris had said that she wanted her last breaths to be taken on a snowy mountain, surrounded by people she loved. And so they were.