Christa M. Perea

Saturday September 16, 2023

Predeceased by her parents, Friedrich and Frieda Brauch.

Survived by her loving husband, Max Perea of 46 years of marriage. Daughter, Ruth Perea. Sister, Ruthild Wade. Brothers, Sigbert (Kathryn) Brauch, Manfred Brauch, Joachim (Susann) Brauch. Many nieces and nephews.

Friends may call 4-6pm Wednesday September 20, 2023 at New Comer Cremations and Funerals, 2636 Ridgeway Ave. (west of Long Pond Rd.)
Funeral service will be held at 10 Thursday morning in the chapel of the funeral home. Interment White Haven Memorial Park.

Christa had been told a few times that she could write a book of her life story with her life being as full as it was. Christa Marianne Brauch was born on Christmas Eve of 1934 in China to Friedrich and Frieda Brauch who were missionaries there. She was their firstborn child, and they moved back to Germany when Christa was a year old. Soon after emigrating from Germany to America (Rochester, NY) in 1953 when Christa was 19, she got a job working as a housekeeper for the president of the University of Rochester at the time, Dr. Cornelius de Kiewiet, and his family. It was while she was a housekeeper that Dr. de Kiewiet's wife suggested to Christa that she study to become a nurse at the U of R School of Nursing, which she did and went on to receive her nursing degree in 1959. Christa worked as a R.N. at Strong Memorial Hospital for a few years before she got her calling to become a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Peru in 1971.

Before Christa went to the mission field, she lost her father to aplastic anemia, which had turned into leukemia. In the spring of 1975, Christa met Max Perea by chance. They got to know each other, dated, got engaged in 1976 and got married on January 8, 1977 in Yarinacocha where Christa had done her missionary work with her fellow missionaries.

Christa and Max had their only child, daughter Ruth, on June 20, 1978 in Lima, Peru. (June 20 happened to be Christa's father's birthday, too.) Because Christa and Max were having a hard time making ends meet in Peru, they decided to move to Christa's hometown of Rochester, NY in early October of 1978 where Christa resumed her job as a registered nurse, this time at Monroe Community Hospital, while Max attended Ibero to learn English and eventually land a job at Eastman Kodak.

As their daughter, Ruth (Ruthie, as she was called by her parents and extended family), was growing, Christa gave up working as a registered nurse in favor of jobs that were more flexible and allowed her more time to be the caring and involved mom she knew she wanted and needed to be to Ruth. In the '90s, Christa had a few different jobs with home healthcare agencies as a community health nurse where she would sometimes teach in a classroom setting or go out into the field to supervise home health aides.

When Christa's position with HCR was eliminated in 2003, she made the decision to officially retire from her work as a R.N./community health nurse, gave up her nursing license, and focus on per diem work as a foreign language tutor (Spanish and German) with the Greece Central School District, something she had already started doing in the mid-nineties. Christa, Max, and Ruth had taken many trips together as a family, both in the U.S. and abroad. Their vacations abroad included five trips to Peru to visit Max's family, two to Brazil where some of Max's family also resides, and Christa and Ruth visited Germany, Christa's homeland, for two weeks in August of 1997. In July of 2002, Christa, Max, and Ruth took a week-long Western Caribbean cruise to celebrate Christa and Max's 25th wedding anniversary.

January 8, 2024 would've marked 47 years of marriage for Christa and Max. Christa's health began to slowly but steadily decline in 2019. On April 13, 2020, Christa's family called the paramedics when her health worsened, and she was taken by ambulance to Rochester General Hospital where she stayed for three and a half months before finally being stable enough to be admitted to Monroe Community Hospital as one of their residents.

Christa was at MCH for just over three years before passing away peacefully in her sleep early in the morning on Saturday, September 16, 2023.

In lieu of flowers friends may make contributions to The International Childcare Ministries by going to their website Click to donate
or by mail: ICCM, 5235 Decatur Blvd, Indianapolis, IN 46241 in memory of Christa.

To leave the family a message or to sign the online guestbook click the above link "share memories".