"Fight on!"

A Tribute to Chris Beebe

Our friend, Chris Beebe—the leader of our local multiple myeloma support group—passed away just after midnight last night.

Chris was there in my earliest days with myeloma. He offered me a lifeboat on that treacherous sea. This disease was less daunting because of him.

In the last two years, Jackie and I serendipitously ran into Chris and his wife, Jingdai, a dozen times in the lobby at Hutch. Sometimes, Chris and I were both doing fine, just taking care of cancer business. Then, there were times I was in rough shape, in the throes of my stem cell transplant. Chris gently put his arm around my shoulder, leaned down, and whispered, “Fight on.”

Last month, we met again—this time, Chris was struggling under the crushing weight of his final treatments in a ten-year battle to keep myeloma at bay. I could see that talking was too hard, so I held his hand, looked into his eyes, and simply said, “I love you.”

Jackie and I are heartbroken. We are linking arms with all our comrades in the support group, encircling Jingdai with love as we grieve together.

               Fight on!
In memory of Chris Beebe

Bells tolled silently
at the midnight hour
when our beloved 
stepped beyond the veil,
loosed the ties of breath and bone.

He was one of us—
He held high the lamp,
A soul with open arms,
A compass in our storms,
Our comrade in the trenches,
Our general in the charge.

His absence will echo
in the chambers of every tomorrow.
We’ll ache for his voice
and the warmth of his love
long past the reach of days.

And we will carry his compassion
like a keepsake with outstretched hands
for the next who comes to the gate
and asks, “Can you help me?”

                                      ~ Mary Rose

Chris Beebe 1956-2025, with wife, Jingdai Chen Beebe