Amanda Leigh “Mandy” Stringer
Amanda Leigh “Mandy” Stringer
Amanda Leigh “Mandy” Stringer, of Mount Pleasant, Texas, died Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019, at the age of 30.
She entered eternity with Jesus at UT Health East Texas in Tyler, Texas surrounded by family after suffering a cardiac arrest and a long battle with juvenile diabetes, gastroparesis and kidney failure. She was born July 14, 1989, in Wichita Falls, Texas to Bryan and Lynda Stringer of Mount Pleasant. She was an artist and creative soul with an endless capacity to embrace those around her and infect them with her genuine smile and quirky humor.
She graduated with the Class of 2007 from Richland High School in North Richland Hills, Texas, but was always a Burkburnett Bulldog in her heart, having lived in the small North Texas town from age two through 7th grade. Moving with her family to Mount Pleasant in 2008, she worked as a jewelry associate at Walmart and then as the online community manager and graphic designer for the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. She attended art classes at Northeast Texas Community College and was a freelance graphic artist, photographer and crafter.
She was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was just three years old, and for a few years, attended Camp Sweeney in Gainesville, Texas, a juvenile diabetes summer camp. She was fearless as she left home at age six for the three-week camp, reveling in the atmosphere where she could run, play, hike, swim, fish and ride horses like “a normal kid.”
Many years with the disease took its toll and she began having complications in 2016 when she was diagnosed with gastroparesis and retinopathy, which left her blind in one eye. She miraculously survived a cardiac arrest August 31, 2017, after doctors thought there was no hope of her regaining consciousness without significant brain injury; and was then diagnosed with chronic kidney failure during her monthlong hospital stay. She also survived a cardiac arrest in August of this year. Time and again, she proved that God had a plan for her life as she fought the debilitating effects of the digestive motility disorder and faced three days a week of dialysis since March 2018 in the hope of one day receiving a kidney-pancreas transplant. She was starting that process when God called her home to Heaven.
She had registered as an organ donor in 2014, and her family, while mourning her loss, is rejoicing that she had the privilege and honor of saving someone’s life with her liver, which went to a transplant recipient in the Dallas area. The family hopes to be able to meet the person who received a second chance at life through her gift and asks that others consider becoming organ donors.
Mandy Stringer served as a member of Ministering Our Military and was a member of Center Church in Mount Pleasant.
She is survived by her parents, her brother, Matthew Stringer and wife Meghan Crooks Stringer of Mount Pleasant; sister, Kristin Stringer, of Plano, Texas; niece and nephew, Emma and Benjamin Stringer of Mount Pleasant; uncles, Jim Coultes and wife Wilma of Fort Worth, David Coultes and wife Shelley of Elizabeth City, N.C.; aunts, Barbara McKay and husband Gary of Dallas, and Terry Hale of Atlanta, Ga., uncle, Jerry Stringer of Bay Springs, Miss.; and grandparents, Bobbie Stringer of Mount Pleasant, and Clifford Coultes of Johannesburg, Mich; and numerous cousins.
She is preceded in death by her grandfather, Simon Stringer, grandmother, Lucille Coultes; and uncle, Micheal Coultes.
A celebration of life service will be held Sunday, Sept. 15 at 3 p.m. at Greenhill United Methodist Church at 2485 FM 2152 in Mount Pleasant with Ps. Matthew Davis officiating. A reunion gathering for family and friends will be held at the church following the service. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Bates-Cooper-Sloan Funeral Home in Mount Pleasant.
The family asks that memorial gifts be made for her final expenses to the Mandy Stringer Medical Fund at Vera Bank in Mount Pleasant, Camp Sweeney for camper scholarships, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (IFFGD) and to the American Kidney Fund (AKF).