After Kristina passed, Sandra went to Chico to clean out her apartment. While going through her things, she found a handwritten list — Kristina's bucket list. Twenty-five things she had hoped to do with her life.
"As soon as I found it, I knew we had to do what we could on the list."
— Sandra Burke Chesterman
Sandra shared the list, and something remarkable happened. Friends, strangers, and people who had never met Kristina began completing items on her behalf — from riding camels to running through poppy fields to touring Niagara Falls. A bride sewed Kristina's photo into her wedding dress so that Kristina could, in some way, get married. The story spread around the world.
Susan Vieira, a retired nurse from Campbell who received Kristina's heart, learned of the connection through the Facebook page dedicated to Kristina's memory. She too began working through the list — completing items before she passed away. As Susan once said of carrying Kristina's heart:
"It just felt so good to be close to Kristina's heart."
— Susan Vieira, heart recipient
For Sandra, the list became a way to stay close to her daughter.
"I try to focus on all the days she lived."
— Sandra Burke Chesterman
Kristina's Bucket List
- Be in four places at once
- Go to Venice
- Learn to play chess
- Beat someone at chess
- Save someone's life
- Own two pieces of property (one with livestock)
- Manage or own own business
- Get married
- Have kids
- Learn to fly a plane
- Visit four of seven wonders of the world
- Fly first class on a plane
- Visit the 50 states
- Ride in a hot-air balloon
- Go parachuting
- Go sky diving
- Ride a camel
- Travel to all continents
- Be remembered as "the smiley girl"
- Break up a fight between two guys over me
- Be in homecoming court
- Run through a poppy field
- Tour Niagara Falls
- Go to the Smithsonian
- Drive Route 66
Number five — save someone's life — was fulfilled five times over through her organ donations. And number nineteen? Anyone who ever met Kristina will tell you: she already had that one.
Story originally reported by the Today Show, April 2014. Additional reporting by Livermore Patch, March 2023.