Christine "Tina" Marie Foster

Christine "Tina" Marie Foster of Grayling, MI passed away on December 31, 2019.  Age 70, Tina was diagnosed with cancer in August.

Tina was born in Ann Arbor, MI to Arthur and Gretchen (Oas) Lindauer on April 6, 1949. After graduating from Chelsea High School in 1967, Tina earned a BS in Medical Technology from Eastern Michigan University. 

On April 19, 1969, she married Scott P. Foster, also of Chelsea.  While her professional career began in her hometown, the couple would move to Rawlins, WY, where Tina would become Lab Director, while working toward her MS in Health Services Administration from Central Michigan University’s extended studies program. Tina would later be recruited to become Lab Director at Divine Savior Hospital in Portage, WI.

Upon her husband’s retirement, they relocated to Grayling on the banks of the AuSable at Breakfast Point. Tina retired from Kalkaska Hospital in 2015.

Tina’s work ethic her entire life was non-stop enthusiasm and an overdose of creative energy. But more often than not, her standards were impractically high.  She loved the old German recipes, but always said she could never replicate her grandmother’s springerle cookies at Christmas; nor could she complete her knitting projects fast enough; and in the last year, so excited about learning to weave, she always found some imperfection in the colorful creations emerging from her small loom. That was Tina.

Tina did love her plants and pets. There wasn’t a day where she didn’t attend to her many indoor plants, and weather permitting, the shrubs and plants she cultivated outside.  Growing up on a farm downstate, she always loved animals.  A dog was a constant in her life.  Frieda, a too-friendly Aussie, is going to miss her companionship as well as her reprimands.  Tina also found a few hours every week to get to the Grayling Fitness Center, but only if there wasn’t an honest alternative.

But most amazing of all were the hundreds of volunteer hours in the city of Grayling.  If it wasn’t something for her church community at St. Francis, it was the Christian Help Center.  Most consuming were the times spent as a Medicare advocate at the Commission on Aging.  But she would tell you her favorite times were with the other volunteers and artists at the AuSable Artisan Village.

With retirement came lots of opportunity to travel to amazing places, but number one were the trips to visit the grandkids in South Africa.  Ian and Avi were her forever sunshine.

Tina is survived by her husband, Scott Foster of Grayling, MI; children, Nathan (Randi) Foster of Paarl, South Africa and Caroline (John) Foster of St. Paul, MN; grandchildren, Ian and Avi Foster; siblings, William (Rene) McFall, Sarah (Wouter) Lindauer, Matthew (Wendy) Lindauer, and Jason (Amy) Lindauer. Tina is preceded in death by her parents Arthur and Gretchen, and brother, John Lindauer.

An open house will take place January 10, 2020 at AuSable Artisan Village from 3-6 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Tina can be made to Grayling Commission on Aging, AuSable Artisan Village or the food pantry in your community. Condolences can be expressed to Tina's family at www.sorensonlockwood.com.

Arrangements by Sorenson-Lockwood Funeral home.