Christine Juliano

Christine Juliano, of Schenevus, NY, who helped scores of people struggling with addiction, difficult relationships, and other challenges as a therapist, social worker, relative and friend, died peacefully from a brain aneurysm at home on July 4, 2025. She was 62.

Dubbed “Wally” by her husband, with whom she shared a joyous, playful relationship, Christine loved to write and read; was passionate about acting; and cared deeply about helping others, both in her career as a social worker and therapist and in her personal relationships. She adored her husband, her cats, and “her” lake, and was known for her gentleness, sweet nature, independent spirit, joyful laughter, and thoughtful actions, especially as a devoted daughter. A city girl who became a country girl, she followed the love of her life from urban Boston to rural upstate New York, finding joy and peace in tennis, gardening, yoga, and nature.

Christine was born April 2, 1963 in The Bronx, the first child of Catherine and Richard Juliano. Her father was the first person in his family to go to college, a mechanical engineer who held several patents and later transitioned into corporate real estate. Her stay-at-home mother later worked as a secretary, administrative assistant, and then manager of a corporate library.

When Christine’s brother Gregory was born one year and 13 days after her birth, she joyfully accepted him as another toy, and the two became fast friends and allies. As toddlers, they shared a bedroom, and each would try to crawl out of their own crib to join the other one.

A smart child who always excelled in school, Chris was eager to act as her brother’s teacher. When she went to kindergarten, she would come home and teach Greg everything she’d learned; he started kindergarten already knowing how to read, thanks to her instruction.

Her parents split up when Chris was 9, and a few days later a friend came over and noticed some furniture was missing. Eight-year-old Greg explained that their father had moved out, and Chris admonished him not to tell people that. “She had that social understanding before I did,” Greg remembered. “Later I realized her role was to teach me – and she did.”

Christine was raised in Catholic schools and won a full scholarship to The Academy of Mount St. Ursula in The Bronx, an all-girls school, the only student in her class to get 100% on the Regent’s exam for algebra.

She always wanted to be an actress and attended Fordham University at Lincoln Center for one year before deciding that career was not for her. She transferred to Vassar College, where she majored in English and minored in French. Christine used her French during her 1984 semester studying in Paris, struggling through the multi-volume Victor Hugo tome “Les Miserables” long before it was made into a popular musical in English. She sipped Pernod and drank café au lait at the Left Bank cafes previously frequented by Hemingway and other ex-pats.

Fiercely independent, Christine worked in the New York City District Attorney’s office for a year after college. She moved to the Boston area, where she worked and then earned her Master of Social Work from Boston University. There, she met Joseph Muehl, who became her husband of 28 years.

Joe went back to college at age 40 to earn his degree in social work and met Christine when he interned at an Attleboro, Mass., agency that tackled alcohol and drug addiction. Christine, in her 30s, was on staff there. “She didn’t like me at first, “Joe remembered. “She thought I was unprofessional because I’m a jokester.” But their relationship evolved over time. Joe fell in love with Christine, and decided to pursue her despite their age difference.

Joe took Christine to her first Marx Brothers movie at The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. He sometimes called her “Ravelli,” the name of a Chico Marx character, or “Tootsie Frootsie” after a famous Marx Brothers ice cream sketch.

“We played a lot,” Joe remembered, “making up songs together.” If Christine took a shower first, she’d sing, “I’m cleaner than you, I’m cleaner than Joey.” If Joe showered first, he’d sing, “By gosh, by golly, I’m cleaner than Wally.” That nickname came from a quote out of a magazine that said, “I am the Wallace.” Christine put it up on her mirror, and after that, she became “Wally.” A serious thinker, she never took herself too seriously, and her giggly laughter burbled out with joy she couldn’t contain.

The couple married in Massachusetts in 1997. They didn’t have much money but financed a simple, friendly wedding: Rather than a sit-down dinner, Christine and Joe hosted an informal affair where people chatted as they ate sitting on the stairs. Greg remembered that a cousin who had had a large traditional wedding wished her wedding had been more like this one. Christine’s parents, now divorced for some 20 years, danced together at the wedding, an important moment for both Chris and Greg.

Within a week of getting married, the couple moved to Oneonta to be closer to Joe’s family, as well as to Christine’s Westchester-based family, and in 1998 they bought the house on the lake in Schenevus. “I was shocked when they moved to Schenevus,” Greg said. “I always thought Chris was a city girl. She loved to go to clubs and dance. But she took to it.” Years later, when the siblings both happened to be traveling in Italy, they met up in Venice. “I’d fallen in love with Venice, but she said, ‘Why? There’s no trees here.’ She’d done a complete 180. That’s the power of love,” said Greg.

In Schenevus, Chris found new passions. She got a bird feeder and began watching the birds, then took up gardening and created beautiful spaces on her property. She played tennis, did yoga daily, and adopted a series of shelter cats. She kayaked on the lake while Joe canoed. She took up knitting and loved making hats and scarves for Greg’s inner-city students. She also went into private practice as a therapist, which has continued for about 25 years.

Her playfulness exhibited itself even in the names of her beloved cats: She and Joe were not hockey fans, but she named one of the two current cats Zamboni just for fun. (The second cat is Frankie.) And she resumed acting in community theater, making numerous appearances with the Catskill Community Players. One year, she was in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the shore of Otsego Lake near the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown. Sometimes in the summer, her mother would visit and they would attend the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown.

Years later, when her mother lost her sight and had multiple operations and rehab, Christine donned her social worker hat and handled everything, acting as her mother’s “angel.”

In late June 2025, Christine and Joe attended a wedding in Maine, then spent two days in Cambridge, Mass., returning to her old haunts. She reveled in revisiting old standbys like The Coop, Cheapo Records, and the outdoor chess tables in Harvard Square, but was happy to get back home. She told her mother that “The first thing she was going to do was jump in that lake,” Catherine said. “It was ‘her’ lake, as if she owned the whole lake. How she loved that lake!” Greg agreed: “She didn’t want to come down to The City in the summer because she didn’t want to leave that lake.”

While they had many differences, Christine and Joe were both frugal, liked to dance and attend blues festivals, liked the outdoors, and loved to laugh. “I learned from her to be less picky and accepting,” Joe said. “If it’s not that important, just let it go.”

Christine is survived by her husband, Joseph Muehl; her mother, Catherine Nocita; her brother, Gregory Juliano; and her stepmother Elizabeth Juliano.

Friends are invited to greet the family on Thursday, July 10 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, 14 Grand St., Oneonta, NY 13820.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Christine’s memory to Susquehanna SPCA in Cooperstown, NY, or Super Heroes in Ripped Jeans in Oneonta, NY.