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Jamie Christenson
1985-2002
3/15/03
At the Pops concert on the 2nd a friend of Jamie's (for now
I will just put P because I don't know if she wants her name on here) sang a song for her that she wrote. The song was absolutely
beautiful and had us all in tears. The choir had to go out after P performed, and half of the alto section came out
with bright red faces from crying. If she reads this, P, it was gorgeous! Keep writing and singing for God has given
you a wonderful talent that you should use for the rest of your days!
Well, it has been a month since Jamie and Eric left
us. School has started, and I can already tell this year just isn't going to be the same. Chorus won't be the same without
Jamie's voice in the mix. The different plays that are performed wont be as good. Some of the teachers who were close to her
can't seem to concentrate at times. As you walk down the halls, students who knew her seem to just be going through the routines-
blank looks on their faces as they walk silently. Of course there are times when it seems like things will be somewhat back
to normal, but it never will. I'm sure it is just as hard for Eric's family, friends, and community. But they should be proud,
because Eric died trying to save another life. He died a hero. He will always be a hero in my mind.
Local teen drowns
in northern Minnesota
By JENNY WELP
T-R Staff Writer
And The Associated Press
A Marshalltown High School student drowned Tuesday while participating in a church
trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in northeastern Minnesota.
Jamie Lynn Christenson, 17, was pulled into
turbulent water when she was swimming near Upper Basswood Falls, which is on the Canadian border about 16 miles northeast
of Ely, Minn., reported Minnesotas Lake County sheriffs department. Eric Hurst, a 24-year-old camp guide from California, tried to rescue her, but they both drowned.
Christenson
was a member of the MHS swim team and participated in school and community theater. She last appeared on stage Saturday in
the community theater production of The Fantasticks.
Jerry Stephens, MHS principal, said there will be grief counseling
available at the MHS Media Center Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The service will be free to both students and
adults.
We know that this death, as any death of a student, affects the friends, families and students who knew Jamie,
he said. Were here to help with the grief counseling if we can.
Christenson was at Camp Vermilion with approximately
55 people from Trinity Lutheran Church, said Karen Donahey, parish worker. The group, which included her brothers Luke and
Erik, left Sunday morning and was scheduled to return Saturday.
We dont know now when theyll be back, Donahey said.
Rev.
Paul Leslie, the camps director, said the sheriff told him Jamie and her groups guide, Cathleen Gosselin, 22, of Minneapolis,
were swimming in a pool that appeared safe, but they became caught in the undertow. Hurst, who was guiding a group from Evanston,
Ill., tried to rescue them both, the pastor said.
Cathleen and Jamie were swimming in the pool with their life jackets
on, Leslie said. An undertow caught Jamie. Cathleen tried several times to rescue her and almost drowned herself.
She
got pretty beat up. . . She screamed for help and Eric Hurst put on his life jacket and jumped in to help Jamie, and he got
caught in the undertow too, he continued.
Leslie said other campers immediately arrived to help.
A Boy Scout
group came through and they were marvelous, he said. They could see them in the water but werent able to get them and get
them out. They were using ropes, and then all of a sudden, on their own, the bodies surfaced.
Gosselin then led the
effort to perform CPR, with help from campers, but unfortunately they couldnt revive them, Leslie said.
Authorities
flew in on a float plane to recover the victims.
Mark Smith, a friend of Jamies family, said Jamie was transported
to Fairview University Memorial Hospital in Hibbing, Minn., where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
It is a huge
loss for the community because she was a wonderful, wonderful girl, said Jean Bergen, a member of Trinity Lutheran Church.
She was very involved in the church, community and school.
Bergen said there is a lot of prayer support in the community
for both Jamies family and Hursts family, which lives in Minot, N.D. A prayer service was held Wednesday night at Trinity
Lutheran Church.
Jamie is the daughter of Bob and Deb Christenson of 217 E. Ingledue. Bob is president of the Marshalltown
Board of Education, and Deb is a teacher at Franklin Elementary School. Jamie is survived by her parents and her brothers,
Daniel, Luke and Erik, as well as extended family.
The sympathy the family has received, particularly from the young
people who were Jamies friends, has been particularly appreciated, Smith said. The Christensons know everyone in our community
wishes them well during this time of almost unbearable grief.
Randy Sissel, director of theater at MHS, said Jamie
had the potential to make it in the acting world.
She had a sparkle in her eyes and a sly smile, he said. She knew
what she was doing on stage. Thats not something I can teach everybody. Thats a gift that she had.
Jamie started winning
major theater roles her first year in high school, according to Sissel.
Even though she was very successful, she didnt
have a big head, he said. She gave respect to everyone who was on stage with her.
This death is a loss for all of MHS,
not just its drama program, according to Sissel. Jamie was an intelligent girl, one of the kids in the classroom that you
enjoy having, he said.
In fact, Sissel said her death is a loss for the whole community. He said Jamie was headed for
success, and was the kind of person who would have given something back to Marshalltown.
Its tragic that we dont know
what it would have been, he said.
Leslie said the campers and staff were mourning Wednesday.
As you can imagine,
theyre sad, theyre shocked, the pastor said. They all called their parents. . . We are in prayer, asking God to support us
and be with us as we grieve, and give us strength for each of these days. We always lean on God with the hope of Christ.
Camp
Vermilion takes about 55 groups a year on trips into the BWCA, according to Leslie. The camp is owned by 75 churches in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and has not had any serious accidents since it opened in 1960, he said.
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The Bottom Line
Rob Merritt
Marshalltown will miss Jamie Christenson
Dear Jamie,
I am
writing this because I wont ever be able to reply to your last e-mail. The one you sent me on Sunday, about an hour before
you left for your camping trip in Minnesota.
I cannot believe we have lost you.
I keep getting brought back
to what you said in that e-mail. We had just finished performing the last show of The Fantasticks at Marshalltown Community
Theatre, and we were making plans to hang out as soon as you got back from the trip. You said you were so glad that we were
friends, but you said something else something that I have to address here.
You said you were really grateful to have
your friends. Because Ive been told Im a hard person to get to know, and I admit that I have often felt disconnected with
people.
Jamie, you were so wrong. If there is one thing thats been made clear in the past two days, its that you were
so loved. By so many people. When my friend
first called me Tuesday and told me the news, I couldnt believe it. You? Drowned? There was no way. You had been on the swim
team. I had just talked to you. Two hours before you left for Minnesota, you and I were sitting on my porch, talking about
the next season of theatre at Marshalltown High School, and what college life would be like. What the world had in store.
The things you would achieve.
You cant be gone.
I stopped at Pursel-Davis Funeral Home Thursday morning. I
saw the sign for upcoming services. Miss Jamie Christenson, 17. Pending. I looked at the Obituaries page and I saw your name.
Nothing about this makes sense, Jamie.
Marshalltown lost a treasure when it lost you. It lost a life that
was so young and vibrant that words cannot even begin to do justice to what were all feeling. I still cant get my head around
the fact that youre gone.
But if
there is one thing I can say, it is that you were loved.
You thought that your being a little different made it hard
for people to get close to you. But the fact you were different is what so many of us loved about you. You were so smart.
So sure of yourself. You knew who you were, which is more than many of us can say. The fact that you were that focused and
driven, at your age, still blows my mind. You had so much to give. You were one of the great ones, Jamie. You still are. And
everyone who knew you could see it.
I went to my friends house when I heard the news. From there, we headed over to
your friend Julianne Masons place. More than 20 other people had gathered there by the time we arrived, and more kept coming.
Everyone was on cell phones, asking, Has anyone talked to so-and-so yet? Does so-and-so know?
There were so many people
who had to be called. So many who loved you. So many who needed to know.
The next day, students from the MHS Theatre
Department gathered at Director Randy Sissels house. Mr. Sissel, who you had been pestering with questions about what shows
the school would be doing next year. The students from the Thespian troupe that you had been elected president of.
So
many people. So many tears.
And then, that night, I went to the prayer service at your church, Trinity Lutheran. I
had to struggle just to find a place to park. Hundreds of mourners were there, Jamie. Hundreds. It was standing-room only.
And this was before reports of your death had hit the media waves; these people were there just because of word-of-mouth.
At your funeral next week, there will be countless more.
They care about you so much.
Sitting there in that
church, I wish you could have been with us to hear what people were saying. They opened the floor to comments from mourners;
so many got up to speak. Your Prom date. Your former castmates from The Fantasticks and Dancing At Lughnasa. Grade-school
teachers. Close friends. So many people, from so many different places, each with a memory of how special you were.
I
left the prayer service and stopped at the newspaper; I had taken the day off, but I needed to see what was being written
about you. While I was there, I talked to Jeff Webster, the T-R Sports Editor. He was broken up, too. He remembered the conversations
you had at swim meets last year, challenging each others knowledge of jazz music. He misses you.
So many people miss
you.
I wish I could have known Eric Hurst. When that undercurrent pulled you down, he tried to go in after you. The
water took him as well. He was a hero, one who deserves to be remembered forever. He tried, for a moment, to keep you here
with us; instead, we lost both of you.
I have tried to make sense of this, Jamie. I have tried, so many times, to
convince myself that theres some reason why this had to happen, that theres a plan of some kind. I cant. Whatever that plan
is, I would trade it in a second if it meant we could have you back.
But there is one thing I take comfort from. A
friend of mine pointed out that some people judge a
persons quality of life by how many years theyve lived. But thats not what its about at all. Its how you lived that matters.
And in your case, you lived so well.
Look at all the people you affected. People from the theatre, your classmates,
the swim team, your church, at Dairy Queen where you made me ice cream cones and laughed at how I dribbled them, your friends,
your family ... I stood outside that prayer service last night, talking to people from so many different walks of life, that
you had still managed to touch somehow.
Heck, just think about The Fantasticks. The way that every night, at intermission,
you and I would sit backstage and marvel at the size of the crowds we were getting. (At least, thats what wed do whenever
I wasnt ribbing you that, as the mute, You need to get your lines learned, Jamie!) You brought so much joy to those audiences,
just with that show.
And that was just two weeks out of your life, Jamie. Think of how many people you touched in
17 years.
I think back again on the last time I saw you. We had driven to the cast party together, and I took you
back to my place to get your car. We wound up sitting on my front porch until 2:30 in the morning, just talking.
Then
you said, Well, I should probably try and get some sleep, since Im leaving in two hours. You got up and gave me a hug. We
held it for so long. Then you walked back to your van that van you would drive around in, bouncing up and down and singing
with the radio as you drove and not caring who was looking at you while you did it that van that was so not-you and so you
at the same time.
You reached the van, then turned around and blew me a kiss.
Thats the last image I have
of you.
I wish now that I had just five more minutes with you. That I could go back to that moment, and run up to
your van, and stop you from driving away, and tell you that I love you, that the cast loves you, that so many people from
so many places love you. That you touched all of us.
But maybe you already knew. When true love exists, it doesnt
have to be spoken. We didnt have to say I love you every day for you to know that we did.
I opened up that last e-mail
again today. I read it, alone in my house, finally away from the crowds of people Ive been with for the past 36 hours. I cried.
I think back on that song you asked me to play for you on the piano that one night, three weeks ago. We both loved
Billy Joel, and you especially loved the song Lullaby from River of Dreams. I loved singing it for you yet ever since, the
words from that song have been haunting me:
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullaby
Then in your
heart
There will always be a part of me
Someday well all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die
Thats
how you and I will be.
I miss you so much, Jamie. I hope that one day I will see you again.
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The Bottom Line
Rob Merritt
Heroes like Eric Hurst should be recognized There have always been debates about what makes a hero. People argue whether
sports stars are heroes because they ran for 2,000 yards in a season, or movie stars are heroes because they save the day
onscreen.
But this month, I learned what a real hero is. He wasnt a celebrity. In fact, I had never heard of him up
until a few weeks ago. But on July 30, he gave his life trying to save my friend. Eric Hurst went into the water after Jamie
Christenson when she became trapped in the current, and he never came back.
Eric was a regular guy, who probably would
have laughed before that day if someone had called him a hero. He was born in Ventura, California, and spent his school days
moving back and forth between there and Minot, North Dakota, where he graduated from high school in 1996.
From there,
Eric attended college, waited tables at a restaurant in California, and travelled the world, trying to figure out where he
wanted to go next.
He hadnt made up his mind what he wanted to do, Steve Hurst, Erics father, told the Ventura County
Star on August 1.
But on July 30, Eric was working as a summer canoe guide at the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. Jamie
Christenson was sliding down a rapid part of the waters she had already gone down safely once before when something went wrong.
Eric saw that she was in trouble. In that moment, he didnt care about the danger the water presented. He didnt care
that he might not come back. He probably didnt even know Jamie. All he knew was that a girl needed help. And he knew that
he had the power to try and save her.
The attempt cost him his life. But for a moment, he had a hold of Jamie. For
a moment, there was a chance that because of him, one of the greatest people I have ever known in my life could have been
saved.
Many of Jamies friends here in Marshalltown wish we could have been there to try and do something. Eric Hurst
actually did.
He gave his life in attempt to save our daughters, said Bob Christenson, Jamies dad. He was a hero of
the highest magnitude, and deserves to be recognized appropriately.
I couldnt agree more. I didnt know Eric Hurst,
but I wish I had. And now that hes gone, I want other people to know about him, too.
Two days after we lost Eric and
Jamie, I spoke with John Wodele, a spokesman for Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. Their office was already aware of what
had happened in the Boundary Waters. I passed along the familys request that Governor Ventura recognize Eric in some way.
On Tuesday, Venturas office got back to Mr. Christenson. According to Christine Nelson, the offices Citizen Outreach
Director, Ventura is planning to prepare a Certificate of Commendation to honor Erics memory.
True heroes deserve at least
that, Nelson wrote.
The family is grateful for this, as am I. As a leader, Governor Ventura stepped up. But I believe
its just a start.
You see, Eric Hurst tried to save one of our own. He gave his life for Jamie. As Marshalltown residents
and as Iowans we should push to see him recognized here in Iowa, and let his family know that our state is grateful.
To
give ones life in the act of trying to save another life is the ultimate sacrifice, Mr. Christenson said recently.
While
Eric was not from Iowa, his act of courage and bravery took place trying to save our daughter ... Eric Hurst deserves no less
than our fullest efforts to show what the people of Iowa feel about heroes. Especially those that give their lives trying
to save one of our own.
Our leaders have the power to give Eric recognition. Governor Vilsack, Senators Grassley and
Harkin and our state representatives should hear from us. The state of Minnesota has already extended its hand of thanks to
Eric and his family. Iowans need to do the same.
One persons request wont be enough. Our leaders must understand how
many people in Marshalltown have been affected by Eric Hurst.
There were somewhere near a thousand people at Jamies
funeral a few weeks ago. So theres no question how important she was to this community. Just think of what would happen if
every person who was at that funeral got on the phone tomorrow, and called the state capital. If every person let it be known
how special Jamie was, and how much it means to us that Eric tried to keep her here with us. No legislator could ignore that.
You can call Senator Grassleys office at (202) 224-3744, or Senator Harkins at (202) 224-3254. Governor Vilsacks office
is (515) 281-5211. Or write to the governor and to your state legislators c/o The State Capitol Building, Des Moines, Iowa,
50319.
I have no doubt in my mind of what a hero is. On July 30, Eric Hurst was that hero.
Lets get our leaders
to say so.
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