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The February 9, 2023 episode of HGTV’s “Christina in the Country” may not be as much fun or as lighthearted as viewers have come to expect, but Christina Hall’s best friend says it’s the “most powerful” hour of television she has ever made.
The episode was originally intended to follow Hall as she helped her best friend of more than 25 years, Cassie Schienle, by doing a very special home renovation for Schienle’s sister-in-law, Dr. Jessica Waldron, and her family.
Waldron, who was diagnosed with ALS, was struggling with mobility issues, so her family asked Hall to help make their home easier to navigate. But sadly, Waldron died on November 3, 2022, before Hall and her crew had completed the home makeover.
“When Jessica passed, Christina and her team jumped into overdrive to get the house finished so Damon and the kids could have a home where they were able to come together and start building a new chapter,” Schienle told People. “Finishing out the episode after Jess passed was extremely important to us as a family because we wanted to share Jessica’s story with the world and draw awareness for ALS.”
Schienle called the episode “a beautiful tribute for such a special person,” People reported.
Christina Hall Was Entrusted With Family’s Goal to Make Home Wheelchair-Accessible
About a year after moving to Tennessee, according to HGTV, Waldron began losing the ability to move her body due to ALS. A GoFundMe campaign held in 2022 said “Jessica first experienced dropfoot in her right foot in January 2021, followed by weakness in that leg, then weakness in her left leg,” which led to her being unable to walk.
The ALS Association describes the condition as “a progressive neurodegenerative disease that impacts nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.” Over time, a person’s brain is no longer able to control muscle movement, which can lead to patients losing their ability to speak, eat, move, and breathe.
In the episode about Waldron’s need for a wheelchair-accessible home, her husband Damon Waldron says, “Christina is the one person we trust to make (our house) accessible and make it beautiful.”
On February 8, Schienle uploaded several videos about the upcoming show to her Instagram Stories, saying “it’s probably the most powerful episode Christina has ever done.” She shared that after Waldron died, “Christina and her team really moved mountains to get this house complete so Damon and the kids had their space to heal and take the next step into their new world.
“It was super important for us to finish this episode,” Schienle continued, “to share what a beautiful person Jessica was, draw awareness for ALS and really draw awareness for those that are battling this disease.”
“It means the world to me,” she said. “It’s extremely special, it’s very personal.”
Christina Hall Calls ALS the ‘Worst Disease I Have Ever Seen’
During an Instagram Live session on February 2 viewed by Heavy, Hall and her husband, Josh Hall, discussed the “heartbreaking episode” about Waldron and her family, with Christina Hall saying that losing Waldron while filming was “just a horrible experience.”
“It was really hard and we’re all still recovering from that,” she said. “(It’s) literally the worst disease I’ve ever seen in person in my entire life. Just absolutely awful, brutal, brutal, brutal and so very sad.”
Josh Hall, who runs a production company with Christina to produce her shows, agreed during the Instagram Live session that finishing the episode was challenging.
“We did the best we could … to finish that episode while honoring her and the family, and respecting everybody at the same time,” he said. “It was definitely tough to do.”
According to HGTV, the new episode features “meaningful reveals, emotional moments and was created in loving memory of Jessica.” The network and Waldron’s family encouraged viewers to donate to Team Gleason, a nonprofit dedicated to helping patients with ALS.
In one of her Instagram videos, Schienle thanked everyone involved, saying, “Thank you, Christina. Thank you HGTV — to the network, to production, to everyone on the crew that really went through this with us. It means a lot.”
The special episode of “Christina in the Country” — titled “For the Love of Family” — first airs on HGTV on February 9 at 8 p.m. Eastern time / 7 p.m. Central time and can also be viewed on Discovery+.
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