Christine Ann PAUWELS

30 JUL 1942 - 27 SEP 2016

• BIRTH: 30 JUL 1942, South Bend, IN
• DEATH: 27 SEP 2016, St. Mary's Hospital, Evansville, IN

• MARRIAGE: 1 APR 1967, St Joseph County Indiana

1.  Amy STARCZEWSKI

INDEX

[N15461] Christine Ann Pauwels
July 30, 1942 - Sept. 27, 2016
EVANSVILLE, IN - Christine Ann Pauwels, 74, departed this life September 27, 2016, at St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville, Indiana. Christine was born in South Bend, Indiana, on July 30, 1942, to Gerard Pauwels (son of Gus and Emma Pauwels), and Irene Wojtysiak Pauwels (daughter of Frank and Josephine Wojtysiak). She attended Holy Cross School of Nursing and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1963. Her nursing career was spent at St. Joseph's Hospital in South Bend where she was Head Nurse of one of the region's first Intensive Care Units. She was later Head of I.V. Therapy and followed that by promotion to Night Supervisor of the entire facility. In her last years at St. Joe she established the hospital's popular Ask a Nurse call center, a vital community resource for medical information before the advent of the Internet. In 1967 Chris married Leonard Starczewski, and they were blessed with two daughters, Amy Elizabeth Carrasco (Vinny), and Sarah Courtney who passed away in infancy. Christine devoted many years of her life to Christ the King Church in South Bend, involving herself in various outreach programs such as Cursillo and also to missionary work--having spent a year in Mexico serving in an orphanage. Chris always gave of herself willingly and often at a cost to her own well-being. Despite a lifetime of debilitating medical issues as well as the loss of her infant daughter, Chris was a buoyant optimist. She had eyes that were described as “spoonfuls of the Mediterranean” that lit up her face along with her smile. In her retirement years, she enjoyed providing sumptuous family dinners, reading true crime novels, and annihilating her opponents in any type of word game, most especially Boggle, where she was universally acknowledged as the Ultimate Grand Master. Chris leaves behind her daughter, Amy; four brothers: Ken (Marie) Pauwels of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Michael (Mary) Pauwels of Austin, Texas, Larry (Vicki) Pauwels of South Bend and Leo (Terry) Pauwels of South Bend; and two sisters: Mary (Michael) Abaray of Evansville, Indiana; and Cathy Stradtner of Jasper, Indiana; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Her family will forever grieve the loss of her wit, integrity, and caring heart. We are grateful that she will be joined with her daughter, Sarah, her nephews, Jeff Pauwels and Dan Pauwels, and her grand-niece, Delia Grace, until we are all together again. The collective humanity and compassion of the world has perceptibly diminished with the loss of this one fine soul. Published in South Bend Tribune on Oct. 9, 2016