Whenever she walked through the door, 17-year-old Chrissy Lund of Provo kissed her little brother, Tanner, on the forehead. She'd tell him about the things she saw in the world outside, because he was no longer able to go out.
When he was 9, Tanner was diagnosed with a form of cancer called neuroblastoma. And though he fought hard, it was clearly winning their mutual battle for his life. So he stayed indoors and played chess and read. Voraciously.He read all the "Goosebumps" books. And the "Chronicles of Narnia." And "Anamorph."
"A book a day," said Chrissy. "He loved science fiction."
He also loved his family and delighted in their visits. Medication to treat his cancer left him deaf. But he was a natural lip reader, and he watched intently as his parents, Kalleen and Steve Lund, and his sisters Chrissy and Kelsey and older brother Ryan told him about their days and asked about his.
Before he got sick, Tanner loved to fish. They talked about that, too.
No matter how sick he got, he never became discouraged, said his mother.
Last winter, Tanner died. He was 12.
While the family grappled with their grief, Chrissy started forming a plan for how she would honor the little boy she described as brave and sweet.
She would decorate a tree for The Festival of Trees, she decided. And she'd try to include all the things he loved.
It would be her Young Women's project.
For two months, she gathered items: the books he loved, fishing memorabilia, a much loved painting of Tanner and Kelsey playing before he got sick. A checker board, because he was "a master chess player," according to his mother.
After she'd gathered the ingredients of her memorial to a brother she misses, Chrissy spent two solid days assembling her display. Inside the tree a painting by a neighbor bears the legend, "A reason for the season." The bookcases that hold Tanner's books are shaped like boats. A pouting boy doll (a "Time-Out Boy") is dressed in fishing gear.
There are comic touches: a boy who caught the fish and a dad "sad because there were no fish."
Tuesday night, during the preview night bidding for the trees on display at the Festival of Trees in the Salt Palace, Chrissy, a Timpview High School student, was anxious. She "kind of hoped to take the tree home" at the end of the festival.
But the bidding kept going up. And she watched, glowing with a strange mixture of joy and sorrow, as her tree sold for $15,000.
It's a good-size chunk of money, and she is "grateful" that her labor of love touched someone that much. The money will go to Primary Children's Medical Center to provide care for other Tanners who are young and seriously ill. That thrills her.
Decorating the tree and building the setting in which it sits has been a way to say goodbye -- and hello -- to her little brother. To share him with other people.
A reason for the season.