A mother remembers a son who walked Jesus's path

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez Caroline Alexis proudly shows a pictorial memorial of her son's milestones.

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Camp He Ho Ha

Christian Walking Bear Alexis was a member of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation. As a young boy, Christian was a devout Catholic who prayed often, attended Mass regularly and honoured his mother and elders.

On Oct. 5, 2004, at the age of 21, he died in a head-on collision while coming home from the nightshift at an oilrig company, where he had been working for eight months.

"He really had a lot of love for the youth," says his mother Caroline. "He just tried to be a real good role model to them. He was completely alcohol and drug free; he was a devout young Catholic. He went to Church all the time.

Eucharist was his life

"He knew that the Holy Communion was so important to him; like that was his life, his strength."

He would go to church even if Caroline wasn't home to take him. "Sometimes he would be the only youth representative in the Church but he used to sit quietly in the back."

Christian lived a simple life. "He hardly ate any junk food; he didn't even drink pop and he didn't smoke cigarettes. He just tried to keep his body clean anyway he could."

He was a great teacher to Caroline. "He taught me how to shop properly when I go shopping for groceries," she laughed. "But the greater teaching he gave me was unconditional love and to be patient."

Model son

Christian was a model son who completely obeyed his mom. "He really honoured me as his mother," Caroline said. "And he had such love for little children. When I think back about my son's activities, what I think more than anything is the little children he used to see and used to give things to. I think he was just too good for this world."

He started to work on the oil rigs because he wanted to save money to take his mom to Poland to see the Sanctuary of St. Faustina and to pay for his education. He was planning to go to university to study environmental sciences "because the environmental issues were so important to him. He wouldn't even allow his little nieces and nephews to litter the ground or the yard at home; he always made sure everything was picked up and my house was cleaned."

Christian attended church at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation. He never missed the youth Mass at the Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage.

He prayed the rosary regularly and also prayed the chaplet of Divine Mercy of St. Faustina.

A former parish priest at Our Lady of the Lake used to say Christian was cut out to be a priest. "And I always thought he would become a priest one day too."

Christian was born and raised in Alexis and went to school in the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation school where he attended Grades 1 to 12.

"Living in that community, there was so much alcohol and drugs, all kinds of dysfunctional things happening, but he never veered away from his belief to God," Caroline said.

"If he was standing here today and you asked him what makes him different he would say the Holy Eucharist."

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