Obituary: Kristina Jeannette Gerl

Kristina Jeannette Gerl, 17, died in January at her home in Sully Station. She is survived by her parents Mark and Julie Gerl, and her brother Robert Patrick Gerl. 

Gerl, a senior at Westfield High School, was active in the theatre, and loved being in the limelight, her family and friends said. Since she loved the arts—photography, painting, filmmaking—Fairfax Academy was also a natural fit for her. 

"She danced to her own drumbeat," said Mark Gerl, her father. "She was the epitome of an individual. She fit in in a lot of ways but never followed the crowd."

Once Kristina made friends, she kept them for a long time, bringing them into not only her life, but her family's. Nick Rocha, 19, said that when Kristina befriended him, he became almost like another son to the Gerls, moving into their house when he was having a difficult time at his own home. He and Kristina became almost like brother and sister, comforting each other when they were down. 

Kristina was highly independent, and had an outgoing, dramatic personality. That was only one side to her, though.

"We all knew Kristina, but none of us really knew all of Kristina. We knew that little fraction of her that she wanted each of us to know. Such a unique and profoundly broad personality," Mark Gerl wrote in his eulogy. "Like a chameleon, she had many colors too."

For example, one thing that many people did not know about Kristina was that she could have finished high school last summer, but chose not to, so that she could continue in the drama department and have a typical senior year. 

There was yet another side to Kristina's life, though. She had gone through times where she was teased, her family said, when her peers called her names like "Casper" and "Soul Stealer" because of her pale skin. Though it upset her, she made the best of the situation. She turned the tables by playing up the nickname, and making it her own, Mark Gerl said. At Christmas, she even made a "captured soul" inside a bottle as a joke gift for a friend of hers. 

"They called her a soul stealer, but she was really a soul toucher," Gerl said, reflecting on the name. "She touched a lot of souls. I don't know if they know that, but she did."

"As happy and outgoing as she was on the outside, we all wish she could have found her inner peace, while she was still living amongst us— her acquaintances, friends, and beloved family. There is no comfort in this tragic and abrupt end to her journey here on Earth, but I have to believe in the peace and calm she now feels."