She stuck around, because she likes us.
Lucky us.
Chris Minor took a deep breath, looked into the camera on the set at WQAD TV and disappointed viewers with her news: She's done. After 33 years of bulldog reporting, she's walking into the sunset with her beloved husband, Marv Hubbell.
If someone had told Chrissy in July 1985 that she would still be in the Quad-Cities in 2018, she'd have laughed. She does that a lot.
"When Hoda (Kotb, 'Today' show co-host and former WQADer) was in New Orleans, she called me and put her news director on the line," she said. "He said, 'Hoda says you're a great reporter. Why don't you come work for me?'
"I thought about it for a minute, but that was it.
"I have a good life here. I have a great husband, great friends, a great family. The Quad-Cities became home. It became comfortable. Sometimes I wish I'd have gone to Chicago — a major market — but the way my life has played out, I'm glad I didn't."
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I'm glad, too.
Just as she has been a reliable constant in local news, Chris has been a constant and reliable friend — like the time I got out of the hospital after back surgery, and she brought me soup. Have you ever tried to eat soup while lying down?
The more the soup ran off my chin, the more we laughed. And we've been doing that together for 27 years, laughing through the fun times and the heartbreaks. As competitive as we both are, it's a small miracle that our friendship not only has survived but has flourished over nearly three decades. But there's no secret to it. Respect and laughter can bear the weight of many burdens.
Chrissy's career has been equal parts impressive and enviable. I cannot count the times I've watched the evening news, shaking my head. How does she get those interviews? A jail-house interview with one of Adrianne Reynolds' killers? Seriously? And how did they get Chrissy into that jail cell?
"I did have a few panic attacks, leading up to some of those jailhouse interviews," she confessed over a beer about an hour after making her announcement on TV. "I've bailed on several police ride-alongs. You can't open the back doors in a squad car.
"But my photographers understood my anxiety. They are some of the people I'll miss the most. In news, you spend hours together in the car and on stories. There's this bond. We know each others' lives."
Chrissy's life in news has been remarkable. But it wasn't always easy.
For her first Quad-City assignment, she did a live shot from the Davenport riverfront during Bix Beiderbecke weekend. The girl from Chicago (she took a cab to work her first day) didn't know how to pronounce Beiderbecke. Also, the riverfront was filled with mayflies, it was exceedingly hot, and Chrissy was nervous.
"I got through it, but it was kind of miserable," she said. "A few years later, I started anchoring weekends with (the late) Jim King. People thought I was his daughter."
She then anchored 'News Day' at 11:30 a.m., and she loved it, because she got to do live interviews. After that, she took a co-anchor's chair for the 5 p.m. newscast with Erica Wilner, then Carolyn Kissal (now Ontiveros).
"We were the first female anchor team in this market," she said. "I loved doing the 5 o'clock. But I remember covering trials and racing back to the anchor desk at 10 minutes 'til 5. I'd literally have mascara on one eye."
Her entire career, Chrissy's been covering cops and courts. But she also made a name for herself uncovering wrongdoing. And her sources were most certainly not off limits.
"For a long time, my mission was to clean up Rock Island County," she said. "They were brazen about being in it (local government) for themselves and not for the taxpayers. We still have some of it.
"One of the most satisfying accomplishments to me has been putting a spotlight on corruption. Politicians didn't have the best interest of the people in mind, and I got mad. I like exposing people who aren't doing the right thing. My job has always been meaningful to me; given me purpose."
At times, it's also been painful.
"The stories that have stayed with me over the years, and there are many, are the child murders," she said. "Kayla Lansing (6-year-old murdered in 1991) — I'll never forget that little girl. You spend a lot of time, covering those stories. I became friends with the moms, and I felt like I knew some of the children."
Chrissy and I spent many days together in a courtroom, including our coverage of the murder of Rock Island 5-year-old Amber Sutton. Hers was my first murder trial, and I struggled with it. On the day prosecutors showed crime-scene photos of her little body, I figured I wasn't cut out for that kind of story. Chrissy's house wasn't too far from mine, so, after work that day, I put on tennis shoes and ran to her house.
When I got there, I was breathless and crying. Chris put an arm around me and guided me to her kitchen table. We talked for a long time, and I felt like I could go back to court the next day. I never forgot her advice: "When something bad is coming, just don't look. Whether it's a fire victim or a body being pulled from the river, look away. Save yourself."
By retiring while still in her (late) 50s, Chrissy is, in a way, saving herself. She just can't do some of it anymore.
It's become too hard after Ry.
Ryan Sernel was only 12 years old when he died suddenly in March. He had a heart condition. He also had a sister, a twin brother and two parents who absolutely adored him. His Aunt Chrissy could not have loved her Ry more than she did. These months later, she feels no less broken from the relentless grief.
"There are just stories that seem so insignificant now," she said. "Life is precious and unpredictable. I want to live it now."
I knew she would talk about Ryan in her on-air announcement during the Tuesday newscast. As I waited with her and Marv on the edge of the news set, I could see that Chrissy was nervous and excited.
"Wait. They're doing a soybean story?" she asked with put-on disgust. "I'm after soybean prices?"
When the weather tease started, Chrissy noticed I was looking at the production studio behind us.
"I couldn't give a tour of this place, anymore," she said. "I used to know what every piece of equipment did. I don't even know the guy in the headphones in there now. But he said he liked my hair; I know that."
The news set and the production areas just off it were silent during Chrissy's announcement. Everyone's eyes were on her, and many of them grew misty when she spoke of Ryan.
Afterward, a dozen people appeared out of nowhere to give her hugs, even though she'll be back for a couple of weeks at the end of July.
Then, we went for a beer and reminisced about her long career and our blessing of a friendship. But my good luck was not news to me.