THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607020151
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 74 lines
She ran for her life. Now, she's fighting for it.
Fitness buff Christina Pendergraft Coleman jogged at least eight miles and taught aerobics classes daily until a malignant and inoperable brain tumor felled her suddenly two months ago.
Though she is now in a coma in Virginia Beach General Hospital, the 40-year-old wife and mother's recorded answering machine voice still says:
``We're playing or working out or working out or playing.''
Christina, who also waited tables at Captain George's Seafood Restaurant on Laskin Road, has no medical insurance. But her many friends have rallied and held a number of fund-raisers on her behalf, collecting more than $3,000. Her fellow workers at the Hilltop eatery, for example, gave up their tips on two different evenings, designating their tables ``Tina Tables.''
It was the type of thing she would have done to help someone else.
``She always overlooks wrongs,'' said Clark Coleman, her husband of 19 years. ``Most of all she loves her dog, the beach and her son.'' The couple have a 15-year-old son, also named Clark, a rising freshman at Cox High School. His father says he has the same kind of strength his mother has.
Friend Connie Weisberg, a director at Wareing's Gym where Christina had taught aerobics, added, ``She is very giving to others, one of the kindest, sweetest, loyal people I've known - a wonderful mother. She just absolutely lives . . . for physical challenge. I'm praying for a miracle.''
Co-worker Tom Long, assistant manager at Captain George's where Christina has worked for 12 years, said, ``She is a caring individual who gets along so well with everyone, and that's so rare. She is the tiniest little powerhouse, a team player with a constant listening ear. You could go up to her and feel like you've known her for a lifetime. She was fit and healthy, the last person you would think this would happen to.''
Christina was the ``anchor'' of the family, said Long, and her job was so important to her that she wanted to come back to work just two days after an operation to drain fluid that took place soon after her diagnosis. ``Her income was very important, and her biggest concern was to get back to work - the expenses.''
The first symptom Christina experienced was eye trouble, said Long. ``I noticed it. She got new glasses, but three weeks later had more trouble, so she went to the doctor. They called and told her to come to the hospital at 10:20 that night, and it's been downhill from there. The tests, the wait-and-see.''
Much as she wanted to, Christina couldn't work. Then, last Saturday night, as preparations were being made to send her to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for possible surgery, a vessel inside the tumor in her head burst, sending her into a coma.
Now, a shunt drains fluid from her brain, and doctors are administering antibiotics to fight the pneumonia that has set in. The hope is that she will regain consciousness and that radiation therapy will shrink the mass.
``I have to believe that nothing will stop her,'' said Clark Coleman late this week. ``She's a fighter, a battler. With the help of God and the love of so many . . . ''
Christina and Clark Coleman jogged eight miles together each morning. The couple had planned to run their first marathon together this fall.
Clark Coleman is a mechanic at Charles Barker Toyota, but had not been with the company long enough to qualify for the company's group medical insurance. Though Christina could have opted to join a group plan at her work, she chose not to do so because of the cost, said her husband. MEMO: A fund has been set up to receive contributions to help the
Coleman family. Donations may be sent to The Christina Pendergraft
Coleman Fund, c/o First Union National Bank, 1613 Laskin Road, Virginia
Beach, Va. 23451. ILLUSTRATION: File photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Christina Coleman, pictured with her dog, a Doberman mix named
Brownie, was the subject of a Beacon Close-Up on Jan. 24. Two months
ago she learned of a malignant brain tumor. The active mother, wife,
aerobics instructor and waitress is now in a coma. by CNB