Christal H. Jillson

Christal Jillson, loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend went to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on March 10, 2017 at the age of 84.  She was born in 1933 in Germany to her loving parents Fritz and Elisabeth, the younger sister to her brother, Siegfried. She immigrated to the United States in 1951 at the age of 18, lived with her aunt, Martha, in New York.  She studied English in Manhattan and obtained her GED before eventually putting herself through college, to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree from Barrington College.  While in college, she met and shortly after college married, Donald Jillson.  She worked as a teacher in Saddle Brook, New Jersey before starting a family in 1961. They settled in Hackensack where they lived until moving to Maryland in 2014 to be near family. She loved to work with children and taught Sunday School for decades at First Baptist Church.  She also worked in their pre-school for 15 years.  Christal and Don had many wonderful years together actively serving their Lord at First Baptist.  Each year they enjoyed camping in the Adirondacks in upstate New York and spending a week at the Jersey Shore with their children and grandchildren. Every other year, they traveled to Germany to spend a month visiting her brother, Siegfried and his wife Gerda, and other relatives, as well as enjoying time at a resort on the Baltic Sea.  Christal is preceded in death by her parents and brother.  She is survived by her husband, Donald, and children Elizabeth, Katherine, and Donald, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.