Argos' Little Angel Dies

[jerrym]

I have some sad news. Kristina Kingsley has died. The story below is one of the reasons I'm still an Argo fan - because they (the players at least) reach out to their fans in a way few other teams do. Pinball is just the epitome of this. Did any of you Argo Fans know her?

The communities of Kitchener and Toronto are grieving for a bubbly eight-year-old girl who died in hospital on Thursday.Kristina Kingsley, who was born with cerebral palsy, loved the Argonauts, and they loved her back.
"She was a part of our family, so we feel like a piece of us is gone," said Jason Colero, the team's director of education who organized hospital visits.
Kristina, who also suffered from scoliosis, died of lung failure in Grand River Hospital. She had celebrated her eighth birthday April 3. ...
Influenced by her father, Kristina adopted the Argos as her love and joy. Kevin has been an ardent Argos supporter since 1999 and is part of the Argo Lifer group, who he described as "the crazy guys who pound on the drums."
When Kristina attended her first Argo game in 2012, she was mesmerized by the activity, especially the cheerleaders and their pom-poms. And one day, she met the most famous Argo of all: Michael (Pinball) Clemons. He sat down and started to chat.
"It was very special to us," Kevin Kingsley recalled.
And Clemons remembers her well.
"What a magical little personality," he said. "She was so brave, and she made you feel good when you were around her."
During games, her dad would do a special play-by-play for her. And that led to her adopting quarterback Ricky Ray as her favourite player. ...
"Those are the precious moments I can take out of it," Kevin Kingsley said.
Kristina could only make sounds, but her face was expressive. Early this year, her health took a downturn, and she was admitted to McMaster University Medical Centre.
Argo cheerleaders paid a visit to Kristina in January, presenting her with an autographed Ricky Ray jersey. Soon after, her face lit up as Argo players Wayne Smith, Chris Van Zeyl and Andre Durie came in and spent some time with her.
"That meant the world to her," Colero said. ...
Clemons called Kristina "a little angel who was taken so young because God needed help up there."
Kingsley is thankful to the Argos, who "created another day where she was able to smile."

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/...little-angel-/

[rdavies]

[AngeloV]

Thanks for posting this jerrym. Very sad to see children with such horrible illness and to pass away so young.

["Issues"Mcgee]

Rest in peace. Far too young. We are all truly lucky.

[Will]

I interact with her father on Facebook and Twitter, but never met him in person. I can't begin to fathom what they are going through right now. My condolences to her family in this difficult time.

[1argoholic]

Sad very sad. Not sure how anyone can deal with the loss of their children. We have no children but we become total wrecks anytime we lose pets.
One of our good friends has a very young child who has had very bad daily bouts with epilepsy since she was born. Tough stuff parents have to deal with.

[T-Bone]

We sent our condolences when the news broke this past week:

@ARGOLIFER Our condolences.

— ArgoFans.com (@argofans) April 16, 2015

It's never easy when someone passes but it always seems tougher when it is someone so young. Glad the Argos were able to help her through some tough times.

[jerrym]

We lost our first son after one day. If i can give some advice, a simple, sincere "I'm sorry" is better than something like "It gets better". It does get better over time but this is not what you want to hear at the time. We've also had two very healthy children since including one who won two bronze medals at the Age Group National Swimming Championships at 13.

Despite her tender years and physical problems, in picking Ricky Ray as her favourite player, Kristina showed she had a better eye for talent than the Edmonton Eskimo management that traded him away.