Christina Hanson — woman helped others despite her own challenges
Christina Hanson, remembered by her stepmother as a “beautiful person” who loved music and animals and volunteered regularly at an Alzheimer’s residential care facility, died early Monday in her Santa Rosa home, unable to escape the Tubbs Fire. She was 27.
Ms. Hanson had faced many challenges in her life, including being born with a spinal defect that limited her mobility and losing her mother at age 9. Despite her hardships, said her stepmother, Jennifer Watson, Ms. Hanson was “a very happy, social and positive person.”
“She loved helping people and loved her family,” said Watson, who was with her stepdaughter the day before she died and was the last person to speak to her.
Two days a week, Ms. Hanson, who used a wheelchair, volunteered at Primrose, an Alzheimer’s residential care facility in Santa Rosa, where she would entertain the residents. She was skilled at sign language, which she learned at a young age, and often interpreted for hearing-impaired Sonoma County resi-
dents.
Her mother died at age 33 from complications associated with lupus, and the loss was a blow Ms. Hanson had to weather with her grief-stricken father, Michael Hanson.
Her father was Ms. Hanson’s caregiver, and she lived in an apartment behind his house on Wikiup Bridge Way, a small street in a neighborhood near Safari West wildlife preserve.
Michael Hanson was found collapsed on the street in front of his home and was medically sedated with thirddegree burns Wednesday at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. Ms. Hanson had tried unsuccessfully to reach him as flames surrounded her apartment around 1:30 a.m. Monday.
On Tuesday evening, Santa Rosa authorities informed the family that she had died.
“She was a beautiful person, and she is going to be greatly missed,” Watson said. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky