Christine M. David, PA-C, 64 years old, died on Saturday June 1, 2019 after a short but courageous and stubborn battle with cancer. Born in New Bedford, she lived in Fairhaven for most of her adult life after a childhood spending time at the same beach house she made her home. A Physician’s Assistant by trade, she also spent many years teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults, GED and Skills Upgrading at Bristol Community College in Fall River and New Bedford.
She was a graduate of Bishop Stang High School and Southeastern Mass. University (currently UMassD). She furthered her studies later in life, graduating from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences with a BS in Health Sciences and a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies with honors.
Known in the neighborhood for wearing her bright yellow jacket as she walked her beloved dog Charlie on the beach near her house, Chris will be remembered as a fun-loving person who enjoyed hanging out on the beach with friends and family, cookouts, hanging around the bonfire, riding her motorcycle, and telling a good story. She adored her niece and nephews, and loved her many cousins.
Her niece and nephews fondly remember camping out in the yard, just to be scared by Auntie Chrissy. Her friends and relatives will miss her presence around the bonfire, blasting the oldies out on the deck, and singing to the stars.
She loved summer more than anything else, sunrises over the beach, sunsets over the marsh, her Lebanese heritage, and her niece and nephews. She took special pride in taking care of the elderly at her different assignments as a PA, and long before that with friends and relatives.
Even as a young child she had a zest for life and a love of animals. She spent countless hours with the neighborhood kids searching for pollywogs, training her homing pigeons, teaching her younger siblings how to ride a bike and drive a car. She learned to drive in a ten-dollar car in the back field in the old neighborhood, and she was known as one of the kids racing horses along the runway at the airport, until they put up the fence.
She was a communicant of Our Lady of Purgatory Maronite Catholic Church of New Bedford. She is survived by her mother, Octavia (Peters) David; four siblings, Elizabeth David, Catherine David Thomas and her husband Matthew, Anthony David and his wife Marcelle, Marie and her husband George Borges; her niece Victoria Thomas; and three nephews, Samuel Thomas, David Thomas, and Thomas David. She was the daughter of the late Thomas N. M. David.
Her Memorial Mass will be celebrated on Friday June 7, 2019 at 10 AM at Our Lady of Purgatory Maronite Catholic Church. Visitation will be on Thursday June 6, 2019 from 4-8 PM at the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford. For directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.