Kristin Yvonne Card

Kristin Yvonne Card was born on November 3, 1963, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lowell Dean Palmer and Loretta Elaine Alley. She passed away on July 24, 2026, in Henderson, Nevada, at the age of 62.

She spent her life taking care of people. Kristin worked hard as a caregiver — professionally, and just as tirelessly as a mom, a grandmother, and a friend. Looking after others wasn't simply what she did; it was who she was.

In all her caregiving roles, her most important was as a mother. She raised three sons — Derik, Tyler, and Kiffer — and her love followed them into every corner of their lives, growing wider still with the arrival of each of her five grandchildren. Kristin loved fiercely and intensely, and she was loyal to a fault: if you were hers, she was in your corner for life.

To be held in her love was a gift her family will carry forever. She will be missed for the rest of all our lives. May she rest in peace.

Kristin Yvonne Card was born on November 3, 1963, at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lowell Dean Palmer and Loretta Elaine Alley. Arriving early in the winter of 1963, she decorated the Palmer Christmas tree as its topmost shimmering star. The late afternoon she came home she was swaddled and placed at the head of her crib, where her siblings — Terrie, fourteen, and Gay, eleven, tall enough to tip over the top rail; Jeannie and Donald stretching between the mattress rails — hovered as close as they were allowed, kept far from reach yet mesmerized all the same. It was the era of cloth diapers, of soap run along the edge of a safety pin to slip it through thick cotton — and wailful woe to anyone who might even gently prick her skin. That same month she was baptized at St. Francis, the A-frame church, by the Reverend Father Benvenue.

She was traveling before she could walk. By March 1964 she had crossed the country to Inkom, Idaho, to visit her Alley grandparents, and that Easter she was in Orange, California, to be presented to her paternal grandmother, Alice Davis Palmer Sproul, and Grandpa Mazel Sproul. On that trip she went to Marineland and San Diego — and took her first steps. In 1964 or '65, in Salt Lake City, she met her maternal uncle Gerald, of the U.S. Air Force, and Aunt RoseMary Alley, with their marvelous passel of five cousins: Colleen, Janeen, Robert (Bobby), Lisa, and Tracy. They remained good friends and pen pals through the years, and when death took loved ones, they grieved together through the sadder days of loss.

Kristin was raised not only by family but by neighbors who were family in every way but name — the Youngs, the Warrs, the MacDuffs, the Madrigals, the Defas, and her mother's friends from nursing and Utah Power, too numerous to mention. All were generous, supportive, understanding, and kind, and all had a hand in raising the Palmer children — especially Kristin, the longest holdout in the field.

She remembered her childhood as full of road trips and family togetherness. Easter 1965 found her jaunting up to Timpanogos Cave. In 1966 she was barrel walking, sharing Easter dinner with the beloved Marjorie and Arthur MacDuff, and crossing the Swinging Bridge in Colorado. In 1967, big Easter baskets showed up in the back yard, and she kept on truckin' — to Boulder Dam, and over Labor Day to Zion National Park and Goblin Valley. In 1968 a puppy appeared and her sister Terrie graduated from high school. There was Easter camping and digging for geodes; the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and Alcatraz; the California and Oregon coastlines, where she saw Davy Crockett's boots and body, hunted agates in Prineville, and strutted the beach in a new swimsuit. There was a film location and building site in Moab, and water skiing with Wayne and Shirley Daum. She loved camping, and she loved walking in and around rocks. While Don, nine years old, was in Scouts and hiking in Moab, home movies caught the family in action: Don on drums, Jeanne, twelve, and Gay on guitars, and little Kris singing. There were visits to Grandpa Jim and Grandma Nettie in Rose Park. All of this by six years old — she could not be stopped.

On her eighth birthday, November 3, 1971, she took her First Holy Communion. In 1972 she met Callie, nine years old, and the Cahoots began.

That same year, 1972, her sister Jeanne was killed in a car accident. The loss affected Kristin deeply, and it left her forever bereft and heartbroken.

But, life carried on around her. In 1973 beanbags were the rage, and Kris had one — no one else was allowed to sit upon it. Through all those years the close neighbors remained more like family, and there were weekend barbecues with friends and families, caravan camping trips with the rock hounders, music lessons, new albums of many genres, books and the Encyclopedia Britannica, and letters flowing back and forth to relatives and pen pals. On June 18, 1979, she sent a sister off to Oregon when Terrie married Layne Whiting, and another to Logan when Gay married the Librarian.

By 1981 Kris was in her school years, and she liked school — she got great grades. She collected books, and she lived by the Bible. On the mountain she was an elegant long-ski snow skier, as was Don, and their dad looked good up there too; Gay always felt outclassed by them on the slopes.

Her resuscitation and return to a life of love was promised with the births of her three sons, always her stronghold. In the years following, Kristin was pursued by a number of boyfriends, eventually settling down with Paul William Card, with whom she had three boys: Derik, born in March 1984; Tyler, in 1987; and Kiffer, in 1989. As a mom she got them involved in sports and activities, planned the birthday parties, drove them to their friends' houses, and did all the wonderful things moms do.

In 1998 her mother, Loretta Elaine Alley Palmer, died after a decades-long experience of Alzheimer's. Kristin was greatly affected once more by the loss of someone she loved. She had helped care for her mother, and for some time she worked in a dementia unit; together those experiences gave her a calling into elder care. It was at her mother's funeral that a rainbow appeared — one of the little coincidences Kristin called "God winks," small occurrences from which she drew meaning from almost anything she witnessed.

In 2000 Kristin divorced Paul and took on the role of a single mother. She lived selflessly — she didn't buy herself new clothes, buying her boys their school clothes instead. Over her working life she was a legal secretary, a care aide in the dementia unit, and a hotel receptionist, until she finally found her calling providing in-home care for older adults. But above all of these she was a mother, and she sacrificed again and again to help her sons make a success of their lives. She instilled in them a sense of personal responsibility and the need to work hard to get ahead in this world. To her boys she was a witness of their lives, the ups and the downs. She truly cared about her kids: she would defend them to the grave, and she was their biggest champion. When they were sick, she felt sick; when they were happy and thriving, she was happy and thriving.

Kristin's next major love in life was Phil Lapreta, who had two sons of his own — so she was now outnumbered six to one. With Phil she got more travel experience, taking trips to New York and to Hawaii, and together they had their ups and downs navigating life with five boys. For her, relief came in 2008, when her first granddaughter, Brooke, was born to Derik. Kristin loved being a grandma. She loved buying presents and gifts for her grandkids, and she took them on adventures and strolls.

In 2014 her father, Lowell Dean Palmer, died. His passing impacted her deeply, and ever after she loved to share his quotes in his memory — among the favorites: "Getting older isn't for sissies."

Tyler gave her a second granddaughter, Juniper, and in quick succession Ophelia and Emily joined the family. As with Brooke, Kristin poured herself into time with the girls, spending every opportunity she could taking the kids on walks, swimming, or playing with them. And her third son, Kiffer — after years of hearing his mother warn "don't have kids" — brought Oliver, a corgi, into her growing list of grandchildren. She treated Oliver just like one of her other grandkids, buying him gifts, and buying herself an ever-growing set of corgi collectibles.

Whether as a mother, a grandma, or an aunt, anyone who spent time with Kristin felt like the center of her world. She loved and cared with an intensity all her own.

Kristin passed away on July 24, 2026, in Henderson, Nevada, from complications of cancer treatment. She was 62 years young.

She spent her life taking care of people. She worked hard as a caregiver — professionally, and just as tirelessly as a mom, a grandmother, and a friend. Looking after others wasn't simply what she did; it was who she was. And of all her caregiving roles, her most important was as a mother. She raised three sons, and her love followed them into every corner of their lives, growing wider still with the arrival of each of her five grandchildren. Kristin loved fiercely and intensely, and she was loyal to a fault: if you were hers, she was in your corner for life.

For the many who loved her, she will remain the ultimate example of love — unyieldingly self-sacrificing, always reconciliatory, unwaveringly loyal to those she loved. To be held in her love was a gift her family will carry forever. She will be missed for the rest of their lives.

May she rest in peace. We love you Mom, Grandma, Sister, Auntie.