SCARBOROUGH- Christine Seifert Shaffer was born on 20 January, 1965 in
Schenectady NY and died in Scarborough ME on 5 August, 2018
from complications of pancreatic cancer. She attended local
schools in Red Hook, NY. She earned a Bachelor of Science
degree in Nursing from The State University of New York in
Plattsburgh, NY in 1987 and a Master’s Degree in the Family
Nurse Practitioner Track at State University of New York in
Binghamton, NY in 1991.
In her 31 years in medical practice she worked in community
health, women’s health, pediatrics, neurology, internal medicine
and, the job she loved the most, as the Nurse Practitioner in the
Maine Children’s Cancer Program at Maine Medical Center in
Portland, ME.
She was well known for the completeness of her patient charts,
relieving the next provider in line of any need to try to figure out
what was going on with a particular patient. She was a legendary
hard-worker. In internal medicine, just before falling ill, she often
saw as many as 22 patients a day. Doing things right was the
touchstone of her life. She rolled the toothpaste from the bottom
of the tube.
In 1990 Dr. Lary Shaffer was very fortunate that she agreed to
marry him. “An old guy who got lucky” as she often said. They
had two wonderful and beautiful children; Alice, born in 1995, and
Grace, born in 2000. Chris was an outstanding “people person.” It
was difficult to go anywhere with her without having someone
come bounding across the grocery store (or wherever) to give her a
hug. She did uncountable numbers of stealth acts of kindness. The
stories of these are flooding in to her family. She could be counted
on to remember everyone’s birthday.
She loved giving big dinners where 20 or so people would be
around the dining room table. Guests would bring food but Chris
would make even more. She also loved attending to the flowers
around the house.
She is survived by her sister Cathy, her husband John and niece
Carolyn, her mother Kay, her brother and sister in law Dave and
Debby and bunches of cousins. She is also survived by her
immediate family: Grace, Alice and Lary. They are devastated by
losing her and the hollow spaces in their lives created by her
passing will remain forever.
There will be no services. There may be a wild party to celebrate
her life sometime in the future. Watch social media for if that kind
of thing evokes any interest. just to show their love for her. We all
know how much she was loved.
Online condolence messages can be submitted at the Chad E. Poitras Cremation and Funeral Service website, www.mainefuneral.com.