Sarah Nichols Christ
Sarah Nichols Christ, 59, died peacefully Thursday, May 22, 2025, surrounded by her loving family at her home in Riverhead.
Sarah was born April 6, 1966, and her favorite number was six. Her first email address began with amsonia — because she enjoyed that early-blooming blue perennial.
Sarah loved words and word games, puzzles and “Jeopardy.” She gardened with abandon and raised three spectacular children. She loved to travel, she loved to read David Sedaris and listen to Elvis Costello, and she once threw half a quiche onto the roof of a Parisian bus. The beach — any beach — was her lodestar happy place. And her favorite color was blue.
Sarah learned to hate the Taconic Parkway when she went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where she majored in French. Later, she got her hands dirty at the School of Professional Horticulture at The New York Botanical Garden. Eventually, she learned tax preparation and handled people’s taxes every spring before gardening season began.
Sarah thrived on the gift-giving, conviviality and decorative fun of Christmas. She loved baking; both her cinnamon-sugar toast triangles and her skinny twisted breadsticks were legendary and much sought after by family and friends during the holidays. Sometimes, you’d be lucky to receive a cryptic postcard from her in the mail, perhaps pointing out one of life’s little absurdities, and it was as if Sarah was right here with you laughing at the inside joke.
Movies and theater were an ever-present passion in her life, as was her participation in the Riverhead Civic Association, the local litter committee, and the North Fork Women’s Group. She was a regular Monday food distribution volunteer at Island Harvest. She also was active in Democratic politics and spent many election days as a poll worker. At her core, Sarah was a kind soul, but took no small pleasure in skewering pomposity and mendacity when the opportunity presented itself.
When Sarah was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer eight and a half years ago (she never smoked), she threw herself into advocacy, connecting with researchers and fellow patients to raise money for lung cancer research, and to provide education and support for patients. In the process, she became a rock star in the lung cancer world.
Sarah is survived by her wife, Martha Belesis; and her children: Alex Bowe (Dipanshi Agarwal), Lila Bowe and Tim Bowe. Her sister, Maggie (Will Wedge); her brother, Tim (Melissa Steeves); and her father, Donald Christ (Jennifer Booth), all survive her as well — in addition to nieces, nephews and friends galore.
In lieu of flowers (even though she loved flowers!), Sarah would appreciate donations to the LUNGevity Foundation, 6817 Arlington Road, Suite 352, Bethesda, MD; Lung Cancer Research Foundation, P.O. Box 780990, Philadelphia, PA 19178-0990; or St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, 820 Pond View Road, Riverhead, NY 11901.
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