Christina Drisko

Christina Drisko (Greenbaum), 23, of Riverview, FL, passed away on Monday, April 9th 2018, after a 15 month battle with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL. The funeral service will be at 12:00 PM on Saturday, April 14th, at St. John’s Greek Orthodox Church. Preceding the funeral, a viewing will be held at Blount & Curry Funeral Home, 605 S MacDill Avenue, Tampa, FL between 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM.

She is survived by her husband Joshua Drisko, her parents Stephanie Liakopoulos and David Greenbaum, her sister Maria Liakopoulos and her fiancé Eddie Orozco, and their daughter, her niece Alexandra. She is also survived by numerous extended family members and friends.

Christina was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Socrates Greek school and was a 2012 graduate of Fremd High School. She headed off to Tampa, FL where she attended the University of Tampa. There, she met Josh, the love of her life, her freshman year right be-fore returning to Chicago to attend Loyola University. During that time, she maintained a long-distance relationship with Josh, and returned to Tampa after one semester to finish her degree at the University of South Florida. In 2016, she graduated with her English degree. On November 11th, 2016, Josh surprised her with a proposal which involved thirty of his fraternity brothers tell-ing her reasons why he loved her. Little did he know, she had already planned out the entire wedding months before he proposed.

The following Christmas and New Years holidays were spent celebrating and planning for her new life as Mrs. Drisko. The joy continued until she went into the hospital on January 9th, 2017 with some difficulty breathing. That was the first day she officially began her battle with cancer. She was officially diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma a few days later and immediately began treatments. Despite having no previous experience with cancer, she was de-termined to research everything she could to give herself a fighting chance. Often times, she would surprise even her own doctors with information related to her treatments, which warranted her many comments on a possible future career.

Despite her diagnosis, Christina and Josh would not let her cancer delay their wedding, which was set for October 21st, 2017. The one thing that helped her stay positive during her treatments was her wedding and the start of her married life. Even though she went to Chicago with her mother for treatments, her and Joshua remained in constant contact and she was literally count-ing down the days to her wedding. In September of 2017, she officially entered remission and celebrated by returning to Tampa, FL and marrying the love of her life on their originally planned wedding date of October 21st, 2017. The ceremony was intimate and beautiful. It was performed by Josh’s father and attended by both of their parents. She was so excited to become Christina Drisko, that she officially changed her name the following day. All the while, she continued to plan her elaborate wedding the following year at St. John’s Greek Orthodox Church in Tampa, FL for all of her family and friends to attend and witness her love for Josh. To celebrate, they set off on a cruise through the Caribbean where they were able to take a break from everything that had transpired over the previous year. For that week, the only thing that mattered was their love for each other.

In January 2018, she found out that her cancer returned. This time around, it was likely that she would need a stem cell transplant to provide the best chance of an eventual cure. Instead of breaking down and blaming the world, she planned with a smile on her face. The newlyweds be-gan looking for a new home in which she would be able to recover from the transplant in peace and quiet. Within a few weeks, they were under contract and began researching furniture de-signs, wall colors, and even dog doors. On March 15th, 2018, the Drisko’s moved into their first home. Christina’s love for planning resulted in paint swatches along all the walls while trying to find that perfect color. She wouldn’t let Josh start a task without finishing it, even if it meant stay-ing up until 3:00 AM to get all of those screens replaced.

During this time, Christina never gave up on the hope of creating a wonderful life and family with Josh. She fought with everything she had until the end. Even in the stressful times and severe pain, she never complained and had a smile on her beautiful face. She surprised nurses, doc-tors, and hospital staff with her resiliency, positive attitude and spirit. In her last moments, Chris-tina was surrounded by the love of Josh and her parents.