Meleah Joy Christenson

43 years old

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​Passed away in Minneapolis, MN on May 19, 2025

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Meleah was born on January 25, 1982, in St. Paul, MN

Survived by her parents Cliff and Janet Christenson, brothers Derek (Krista) and Jaron (Keeran- Fiancé), nephews Cooper and Carter, niece Kora, fraternal grandparents Ken and Mavis Christenson, many cousins, aunts, uncles and friends.  Preceded in death by her maternal grandparents Stanley and Norma Witz.

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Meleah was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at 9 months old.  From that point on her life involved many doctor appointments, meds, treatments and hospital stays, mostly to keep her lungs clear from the progressive effects of C.F. on the lungs.  She was a happy kid although not always thrilled with us beating on her chest after nebulizer treatments to attempt to keep them clear.  When she was about eight years old, her doctor invented a vest to take over the therapy.  That helped her become more independent.

She attended Montgomery-Lonsdale schools and had many lifelong friends.  After high school she attended South Central College in Faribault, for one year, for Early Childhood Education.  Her doctor was concerned about her career choice as it was not good for C.F. patients to have that much exposure to kids and the germs they carried.  So, she switched to beauty school to become a hairstylist.  She was a hair stylist for about 15 years and really enjoyed it.  After her high school years, she started to decline health wise.  As she approached 29, she was told she would need a double lung transplant to survive.  She received her gift of lungs from Andrea on Nov. 3, 2011

Meleah loved family more than anything, especially spending lots of time with her nephews and niece whom she loved as her own children.  She enjoyed taking trips with them to the zoo or the mall and attending their concerts and sports.  She dearly loved her two brothers and was always proud of them.  She also loved their choices of “wife and fiancé” and enjoyed every minute she was able to spend with all of them.

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She loved to read, especially since she had so much down time in the hospital.  Her kidneys started to fail about four years after her lung transplant, so eventually she needed to go on dialysis.  She has been going to dialysis three days a week for almost six years.  It all took a very hard tole on her life this last year.  Her belief and faith in God and her knowledge of Christ gave her a calm in her life that carried her through all the serious health issues.  She wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t need to be.  She didn’t like her treatments as a child or in her teen years.  But after her faith grew, I can say we never heard her complain or get grumpy about any of her surgeries, diagnoses, pain she suffered the past couple of years, or very frequent hospitals stays.

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Visitation is on Wednesday, May 28th from 5 to 8 pm at Community Baptist Church in New Prague, MN.  The Celebration of Life is Thursday, May 29th at 11am with a visitation starting one hour prior, at 10 am, also at Community Baptist Church in New Prague.

 

We want to thank our families and all of ours and Meleah’s friends who have loved and supported her though her lifetime of health issues.  We would also like to thank all the medical professionals in her life who genuinely cared for her.

 

We want to thank our family at Community Baptist Church who have “shared our burden” more than we can say ( Gal. 6:2).

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Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”