Marie Christie

Marie Anna Charlotta Amanda Dowling Christie (October 9, 1922 – June 6, 2012) Born in County Kildare, Ireland on October 9, 1922, to Michael and Helene Dowling. She was the middle child of seven children: Hilda, Michael, Margaret, Marie, Charlie, Crystal and Gertrude. She was raised in Dublin, Ireland, finished school there and moved to England with her sister Margaret in 1938. During her stay in England she had a number of jobs, one of which was working on munitions in Wales during the war. She told her family many stories about what it was like living in London during WWII. It was also during this time she met the love of her life, our father, David Christie. After the war, Marie and David moved to Hamburg, Germany where he was stationed for two years. They both related many wonderful stories of their life in Germany, especially regarding the time they spent riding horses and motorcycles and travelling the country. Marie and David returned to England in 1947, where they both worked. In 1951, Marie had her first child, a boy named Paul, who lived only five days. Marie and David, devastated by this loss, decided to have another child, a daughter they named Lorraine, born October 1952. During this period, Marie and David lived with David’s parents in London. In 1954 Marie and David immigrated to America and lived in New Hampshire with Marie’s sister, Margaret and her family. The time they spent in New Hampshire turned out to be a much shorter stay than our Mother would have liked. Our Father David soon moved the family to the West Coast where they lived for many years. In July 1955, Kacie was born, in March of 1958 Eileen, and in May of 1961, they had a son, Kevin. David took a job with IBM as an Engineer in 1959, so the family moved to Santa Clara, California. While living here, Marie worked in retail and at Fairchilds Semiconductor with the intention of saving the money earned from this job to take her family “home” to Ireland to visit with her family, which we did 1966. The memories of this trip are cherished by all of us especially now, as adults we realize how hard she worked, and what she sacrificed to be able to do this for us. We have many wonderful memories, the best of which witnessing our Mom’s ever enduring, intense love for her family and homeland. This love of her country and family were the central focus of her life. Marie moved to Oregon in 1989, Las Vegas in 2000, and returned to Oregon in 2008. She made several trips back to Ireland to visit her family, often staying for up to 6 months at a time. She loved to travel and visited many places, including Australia, Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, Canada, and Italy, Spain, England, Scotland. Marie also loved to cook and entertain and was excellent at both. She loved to share her recipes, and teach her kids how to cook many of the things we ate growing up. She was a very social woman, easily connected to people wherever she was, made many long lasting friendships, had a great sense of humor, and loved to laugh. She really enjoyed dancing, shopping, dining out, and she cared passionately about people, especially those she saw struggling. She cared deeply about the welfare of animals of all kinds, but most of all, she loved her family and carried that need to protect us until her last day.