Remembering Christabel

Christabel Francis fell asleep Saturday, September 19, 2020 and awaits the return of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Christabel was born December 26, 1926 to Lazarus and Rita Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur, Federated Malay States (a British colony). “Chris,” as she later came to be known, was the eldest of 5 brothers and 2 sisters: Ivy, Janz, Rajan, Bano, Tom, Madonna, and Ralph. In later years the 8 siblings married and dispersed with their families across the globe, also settling in India, England, and Australia. Chris was confirmed in the Catholic church and educated in a convent school in Seremban. When World War II broke out, the Japanese occupied Malaya and remained there throughout Chris’s teen years. Thankfully, the family emerged unscathed.

On May 26, 1947, Chris was wed to Lexmanan Pillai “Frank” Francis in a marriage arranged by her mother. A native of Quilon, British India, Frank worked for the Indian Air Force. India became independent three months after their wedding, and the couple ended up spending the first nine years of their marriage in the new nation. Their son Millan “Bijou” was born in 1948 in Quilon; their daughter Marilyn “Lyn” in 1952 in Bangalore. Together Frank and Chris raised their young son and daughter in a loving Christian family. 

In 1956, at Chris’s request the Francises made the decision to move back to Malaya (soon to become independent, as Malaysia) where she had been raised. Once the family was settled, Frank was cleared to work by immigration and started a new job as an English educator at a Chinese high school. Chris started her first job, as a stenographer for the British Army. Fifteen years later she began a 25-year career at Skrine & Co., Malaysia’s most prestigious law firm. Chris loved the environment at Skrine, and in later years often looked back at those times as the happiest of her working life. Frank and Chris spent another 37 years together in Malaysia. 

Frank fell asleep on October 19, 1993 after 45 years of a happy marriage. It was then that Lyn and her American husband Tom Knupp invited Chris to come and live with their family in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Coming at first on an extended visit, Chris became convinced that this was the right situation for her and stayed on to become a permanent U.S. resident. This gave her the opportunity to play an active part in the raising of her 2 grandchildren Jackie and April. Chris stayed with Lyn and Tom for the rest of her life.

Chris lived a total of 24 years Stateside with the Knupp family, the only member of her family to migrate to North America. She often spoke of how grateful and blessed she was to have had the opportunity to learn to know God as her Father through an understanding of the Bible, an adventure of personal discovery that first started when she moved to the USA. 

Christabel is survived by her sister, Madonna d’Cruz of Trivandrum, India; and her daughter Lyn Knupp of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Christabel was a cherished grandmother to her 2 granddaughters and 6 great-grandchildren (3 girls and 3 boys) and an honored elder to the children of her younger siblings, 13 nephews and 5 nieces in all.

Christabel was one of those rare individuals whom virtually everyone she met was attracted to, regardless of their age. Her caring, warm smile and friendly, unassuming demeanor won her many a friend. Steadfast in prayer, unpretentious in character, and bold in speaking for and believing God, she trusted her heavenly Father with simplicity. Her sterling example will live on in the hearts of all whose lives she touched.