CHARLOTTE — After Mary Harmon Young and Cristina Biffle were named 30 under 30 by the National Association of REALTORS® the two became inseparable.
“She was one of my very best friends,” Young said. “But I know I was only one of hundreds of her best friends because it was really hard not to fall in love with Cristina.”
Biffle’s heroic efforts after Hurricane Helene led to the rescues of dozens of people. Crucial supplies delivered because of her and her husband’s helicopter. Her philanthropic work was honored by the Canopy Realtor Association when she was named 2024 Humanitarian of the Year. Young says Biffle was no stranger to lending a helping hand.
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“I think a lot of people are really going to talk about everything she did after Hurricane Helene, but the reality of it is, is she served people so long before that happened,” Young said. “So when she was in the position to help people after Hurricane Helene it just came natural.”
Service is how Young will remember her best friend. It’s how she will honor her every day.
“The best way to honor Cristina is to carry her spirit forward,” she said. “She would tell you to serve exactly where you are, help who’s exactly in front of you, whether you’re at the grocery store line or literally in a hurricane flooding situation.”
Six months ago, Cristina posted a photo with her everything, her son Ryder, in the ocean. In the caption, she reminded people to never take life for granted.
“The way she lived her life every day, with kindness, with leadership, with just belief in everybody is proof that any kind of love and action really can change anybody’s life,” Young said.
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Young says in group dinners, Biffle loved to tell the server it is someone’s birthday so a house dessert would be delivered to the table. She says last week, Biffle sent 2,500 Santa letters and during Hurricane Helene she sat on the floor and packaged 3,000 Carolina Strong shirts. She once raised $300,000 for animals just from her Facebook page.
A gifted real estate agent
When Sean Stephens was ready to buy his first townhome, he turned to Cristina Biffle for help.
“She answered all hundreds of the questions I asked,” he said. “She’s just very talented, very passionate about everything she did. She was an entrepreneur, a realtor, a mother. She wore so many hats and it was just very impressive.”
Young started her own real estate company this year, Leisurely Real Estate. She was licensed to sell in four states and the District of Columbia.
Despite selling Stephens a townhome more than 10 years ago, he says Biffle kept in regular contact with him. His wife is going through chemo treatments right now and Biffle messaged him a few weeks ago to say her cancer fight inspired her to get a mammogram.
“I know how popular she is in the real estate market. She has hundreds of clients,” he said. “The fact that she like, still followed up around the holidays would send us something like it was just really cool.”
He says her loss is immeasurable.
“I think she just she lived life to the fullest.”
(VIDEO: ‘Amplifies the grief’: Close-knit community mourns for victims in Greg Biffle’s plane crash)
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