Sarah Nichols Christ

Sarah Nichols Christ, 59, died peacefully on May 22, 2025, at her home in Riverhead, NY, surrounded by her loving family. Sarah was born on 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, 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; 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 there with you laughing at the inside joke.

Movies and theater were an ever-present passion, 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 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 (and his wife Dipanshi Agarwal), Lila Bowe and Tim Bowe. Her sister Maggie (and her husband Will Wedge), her brother Tim (and his wife Melissa Steeves), and her father Donald Christ (and his wife Jennifer Booth) all survive her as well - not to mention nieces, nephews, and friends galore.

In lieu of flowers (even though she loved flowers!), Sarah would appreciate donations to:

LUNGevity Foundation

6917 Arlington Road, Suite 352

Bethesda, MD 20814

LCRF (Lung Cancer Research Foundation)

PO BOX 780990

Philadelphia, PA 19178-0990

St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church

(attn: Support of Ukraine)

820 Pond View Road

Riverhead, NY 11901