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Woman who lost her parents, aunt to Helene announces memorial service

Cristy Matheson poses with her parents, Michael Gene Matheson and Phyllis Ann Matheson.

By Amy McCraw, Published: February 9, 2025

Cristy Matheson turns to prayer on the days she feels overwhelmed by the sudden death of her parents and aunt during Hurricane Helene.

  “It’s hard, just trying to do a little bit at a time. I’m still grieving,” she said last week. “I question God all the time.”

  The sound of her mother’s voice comes to Matheson when she prays for answers and the strength to face her grief.

  “She is giving me so much peace,” Matheson said of the memory of her mother, Phyllis Ann Matheson. “I just hear her talking to me, telling me not to give up. I hear her saying, ‘I love you.’”

  Matheson’s mother, her father, Michael Gene Matheson, and her aunt, Angela Ruth Maybin “Angie” Walker, died on Sept. 27 when the massive Clear Creek flooding during Helene swept away the mobile home they shared at 306 Balfour Road. Their bodies were located at 310 Balfour Road on Sept. 29 inside the badly damaged trailer, according to an incident report from Henderson County Sheriff’s Office.

  Matheson, who now lives with her son in Pennsylvania, said she will return to Henderson County later this month for a memorial service she organized to celebrate the lives of her parents and her aunt.

  Family and friends of the Mathesons and Walker are invited to attend the service from noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Mule at the Devil’s Foot Beverage Co. in Asheville. The non-alcoholic, organic craft beverages and soda shop is located at 131 Sweeten Creek Road.

  Matheson’s father, 65-year-old Michael Matheson, was a native of Hayesville who loved music and wrote his own songs.

  “Mike detailed cars for a living and was cherished for his warm spirit and profound love of country music,” his obituary posted by Shuler Funeral Home said. “Throughout his life, Michael found joy and solace in music, often playing his guitar and singing to family and friends. The happiness that he brought to those around him through his music will be fondly remembered and sorely missed.”

   The memorial will include food, drink and music, especially the old songs her father loved most, Matheson said.

‘She did everything for everybody’

  Born and raised in Henderson County, Phyllis Matheson, 61, loved her family and relied on a strong faith, according to her obituary posted on Legacy.com.
“She would help anyone and never knew a stranger. She will be missed dearly,” the obituary said.

  Matheson also described her mother as a selfless woman of strong faith who tried to help everyone.

  “If you needed a place to stay, she was the one,” her daughter said. “It didn’t matter who it was, she helped them. She did everything for everybody and never did anything for herself. People called her ‘Mom.com’ she did so much.”

  Her parents were not married when they passed away. But her mother had welcomed her father to rent a room in her mobile home on Balfour Road just as she welcomed others who sometimes needed a place to stay, Matheson said.

  Matheson described her aunt, 60, as a camera-shy woman who did not reach out to people as much as her mother.  A  native of Henderson County, Angie loved her family and friends and her dog, Teka, who died three days before Helene hit.

 “Angie had a passion for listening to music, especially her beloved Elvis Presley,” said an obituary posted by Shuler Funeral Home. “She enjoyed watching wrestling and had a great sense of humor and loved to amuse those around her.”

No word for two days

  Matheson said she also lived in the home on Balfour Road in the years after her mother moved there in 2015. But when Helene hit in September, Matheson was serving time at the Western Correctional Center for Women in Black Mountain and unable to see about her family.

  She said she became worried about her parents and aunt as the storm tore through the mountains during the early morning hours of Friday, Sept. 27. Her parents and aunt Angie could not swim and were terrified of water.

 Matheson called her mother to check on her at about 7:30 that morning.

  “I said, ‘Are you all Ok?’ She said, ‘Yes, child. Don’t worry about me,’” Matheson said.

  One of Matheson’s other aunts called her mother at about 10:30 that morning and Phyllis reported that about two feet of water was in the home, Matheson said.

  Her aunt and her aunt’s boyfriend tried to reach Matheson’s parents and aunt Angie but they could not get through the debris and downed trees that littered almost all roads in Henderson County after the storm.

  When they called 911 to ask for help in reaching the home, dispatchers confided that about 800 pending emergency calls were ahead of their call for help. Henderson County’s 911 crashed on Sept. 27 when hundreds of calls at once overwhelmed the system, emergency officials said.

 Matheson, who was eventually evacuated to another correctional facility during the storm, did not hear from her family again on Friday or the next day.

  “That Saturday around lunch time I was on my knees. I was crying and praying for two or three hours,” she said.

  Matheson tried again to call her family on Sunday.  When her mother did not answer, she reached out to an uncle who she thought might have heard from them.

  Her uncle’s words were devasting.

  “He said, ‘They didn’t make it,’” she said.

  Matheson later learned that a neighbor up the road saw the floodwaters lift the trailer off its foundation and carry it downstream. The bodies of her parents and aunt were found in the home on Sunday.

  Matheson said she does not remember most of the next week. In the months following the flood, after her release from prison, she moved to Pennsylvania to be with her son.

  She also began trying to rebuild her life and cope with the loss of her parents and aunt.

  Matheson said she thinks seeing family and friends and hearing her father’s favorite music at the memorial service in Asheville will help ease her grief.

  Her mother’s words are also likely to comfort Matheson when she prays with those gathered at the service.

  “I hear her telling me, ‘I’m Ok,’” she said.