FARMINGTON – Christine Winter Verrengia, 83, passed away on June 18th, at Orchard Park Rehabilitation and Living Center in Farmington, after a long and courageous struggle with alzheimers.
Christine Elizabeth was born at Hill Holm in Kingfield, on June 16, 1927, the only child of Alice and Amos Winter. Hill Holm, which was designed by one of the famous Stanley twins, is now known as The Inn on Winter’s Hill. Her summers were spent playing tennis, water-skiing and swimming at her parent’s cottage at Tufts Pond. Amos and Alice also taught their teenaged daughter how to dance, and they would take her and her friends dancing on Saturday nights wherever Al Corey’s band was playing. Her father also taught her how to ski, and, during the winter they would ski on Bigelow Mountain and other ski areas in Maine and New Hampshire. Chris went to Colby College in Waterville, and had the pleasure of going home on weekends to ski on the first trail cut at Sugarloaf in the mid-forties, Winter’s Way, which was named after her Dad, whose dream of having a major ski area in Maine was finally being realized.
Christine graduated from Colby in 1950. She and her college girlfriend, Priscilla, spent their first year teaching school in New Hampshire. After school and on weekends, they would head for the ski slopes. In 1952, Chris married her Colby classmate, Joseph Verrengia. They first lived in Boston, where Chris taught at the Hickok School. Joe’s career in pharmaceuticals soon had them moving from city to city, in each of which Chris would volunteer as a museum docent, and she and Joe would avidly participate in club tennis. Maine friends and relatives enjoyed the Verrengias’ visits to Maine during the summers. Because of Joe’s failing health, they eventually retired in 1982 in Florida, to be near Chris’s cousin, Olive Atwood Bailey, husband George, and their son Curtis. She was a caretaker for her mother Alice and husband Joe for many years. She did it lovingly and tirelessly.
Chris and Joe, after her mother’s death, moved to the Orchard Park Apartments in Farmington, Maine, in the year 2000. One of their greatest joys was having weekly lunches at restaurants in the area, and frequent drives with the Davis cousins Louise, Pat, Dawn, and Wadi. The Winter cousins Amanda and Muriel enjoyed quality time with Chris as well. All the cousins appreciated Chris’s stories of her family and early Kingfield. After Joe passed away in 2007 Chris rented her childhood bedroom at The Inn on Winter’s Hill in Kingfield, thanks to the kindness of owners Carolyn and Richard Winnick. She then spent some time at Pinewood Terrace in Farmington, and, finally came to rest at Orchard Park Nursing Home.
Christine is survived by her favorite cousin and lifelong friend, Louise Davis Hagerstrom of Farmington, and the following cousins: Olive Atwood Bailey and family of Sarasota, FL; Amanda Winter Murray and family of Farmington; Muriel Winter Oakes and family of Randolph; Anne Winter of Santa Clara, CA; Amos G. Winter IV of Concord, NH, and his children Amos V, and Lillian; numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews on her mother Alice’s side of the family; brother-in-law, Richard Verrengia and wife Beverly of Rockport, MA and FL, and numerous Verrengia relatives.
The family would like to express their deepest gratitude to the Orchard Park Nursing Facility for their outstanding care of both Chris and Joe. We would like to express our sincere appreciation for the excellent care given by the Hospice volunteers and nurses, especially Sherry, who was so very helpful during Christine’s last days. Our heartfelt thanks also go to the wonderful staff at Pinewood Terrace.
A graveside service will be held on Saturday June 26 at 11 a.m., at Riverside Cemetery in Kingfield, with Rev. Scott Planting officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Adams-McFarlane Funeral & Cremation Svc. 108 Court St. Farmington, ME. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.adamsmcfarlane.com.
