WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. – Cristina Guiu Wood, 77, passed away on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, from cancer. She died at her home in Weathersfield, Vt., surrounded by family and friends, and was buried, as she wished, on the farm where she had lived for much of her life.
The middle of three sisters, Tina was born on Feb. 22, 1948, in Greenfield, Mass., to Rafael and Elizabeth (Bray) Guiu. She came to Weathersfield, Vt., in 1970, after graduating with a degree in music from Bennington College. As a child, she had always wanted to live on a farm, and that childhood dream became a reality when, at the height of the Vermont Back to the Land movement, she and her husband Willis took over the family farm that had been in his family since the late 1700s. Here they stayed for the next 55 years, raising two children, Joshua and Marina, continuing and expanding the farm’s cider and maple business, while also raising cows, sheep, and chickens. She was a wonderful gardener, spending countless hours raising vegetables and tending the beautiful flower gardens that surrounded her house. She reveled in the fact that, in maybe 25 years of hard work, she managed to turn a patch of Japanese knotweed into a thriving vegetable garden, but never managed to conquer the encroaching gout weed. She was a wonderful cook and entertainer, easily turning a lunch from two to 20 when friends, grandkids, or a sweaty hay crew showed up.
Tina enjoyed traveling, including trips to Cuba (her father’s birthplace) and Guatemala, where her son and daughter-in-law lived for many years. One memorable trip was walking the entire Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage trail running from France to Santiago, Spain.
Music was always central to her life. She spent many years teaching piano to both children and adults, she sang in many local choirs, and she played piano and organ at the Weathersfield Center Church for more than 40 years, as well as at other local churches. Some 20 years ago, Tina and her friend Julie Levy started and led Clear Springs, a hospice choir, where she shared her love of music with sick and dying patients at homes and assisted living centers. After years singing to others on their death beds, her choir sang to and with Tina as she became sicker, and even up to the moment of her death. She was a lifelong believer in the spiritual teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and attended every summer for almost all of her 77 years a Swedenborgian retreat at the Fryeburg New Church Assembly in Maine.
Tina is survived by Willis, her husband of 55 years; her son and daughter-in-law Josh and Gabriella Wood; her daughter and son-in-law Marina Wood-McNaughton and Nathan McNaughton; and grandchildren Zed, Myra, Ada, and Rose. She was predeceased by her sister Cecilia (Guiu) Searle, and survived by her sister Gloria (Guiu) Costello, as well as nieces and nephews. The family plans a celebration of her life in the spring.