Christine Karen Johnson

Christine (Krech) Johnson - age 60, passed away on Saturday, Dec 16th after a long battle with FTD - Frontal Temporal Dementia. Christine was born on May 20th, 1963 to Roger & Karen Krech in St Paul, MN. Christine was raised in North St Paul and was a class of 1981 graduate. Christine was proud of her career as a Claims Processor at State Farm and was especially proud when she became a mother to first born Sophea and then Vince (Vinny) 5 years later. After her children were born, Christine’s career was a homemaker and a paraprofessional at Centerville Elementary school where both her children attended. Christine took great pride in spending quality time with her children during the summers with camping, biking and hiking trips, as well as their favorite annual day trip to the Little House on the Prairie home in Pepin, Wisconsin. She was very involved in school activities and took the kids on play dates. Christine and her husband Tom played an active role in their nieces and nephews childhood with weekend stays enjoying camping, hiking and fishing trips on both open water and ice at their lake home on Peltier Lake. Christine loved spending time with her family and every summer she would host a July 4th picnic then in the fall she hosted a Halloween party followed by Christmas Cookie baking at their home. Sadly, this all changed as Christine started experiencing signs of dementia around 2015 which was then confirmed in May 2017. At that point the progression of her disease was very fast which is typical for early onset dementia. Even though Tom was still working and the kids were both in school they managed to take care of her at home until her fall risk became too much to manage as her stability and mobility became very compromised. In Feb 2021 Christy was moved to a Presbyterian facility in Brooklyn Park where she would stay until her passing early Saturday morning on December 16th. Christine was doing pretty well at her care center until Covid struck in the fall of 2022 when they think she suffered a seizure. Her mobility declined and she started losing weight and became weaker. Christy always ran over 4 miles every morning so she had a healthy heart and fought long and hard with this disease. We all feel blessed and thankful that we were able to spend two days at her bedside and say our final goodbyes. Christine is survived by her husband Tom, daughter Sophea (William) and son Vinny; pet dog Mack; sisters Linda (Dave) Zamora and Nancy (Mike) Fleischhacker, many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. Christine is preceded in death my her parents Roger and Karen Krech, mother and father in law, Dolores and Glen Gibbons, grandparents and beloved pets Peppy, She-Ra, Princess and Tobie. A visitation will be held at Sandberg Funeral Home in North St Paul on Wednesday, January 3rd, 10 am - 11:30 am with a service at 11:30 am. A luncheon will follow at the North St. Paul VFW - 2483 Seventh Ave E. , North St Paul, MN.