Reston: January 15th

          A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, February 16th, from 2:30 to 5:30  in the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne (1609 Washington Plaza North).  The dress will be casual and you'll be invited to share memories.  If you plan to attend, please let us know at van.foster @comcast.net or 703.437.3138.  Please check this site periodically for any updates.  

Reston: January 13th

Lucinda C. Foster  1940 - 2020

          Cindy Foster, wife of Van Foster and mother of Dana and Lisa, started cancer treatment in 2017, entered hospice at home in Reston in December 2019 and died peacefully on January 5^th, 2020, at age 79.  Her daughters and their families were able to visit her at Thanksgiving and Christmas, which Cindy greatly enjoyed. 

          Cindy was born in Chevy Chase, MD, the youngest of five and consequently the resilient one who raised herself.  She attended Sidwell Friends School and Tufts University where she met Van.  An education major led to teaching elementary school in Connecticut, Fairfax and Clark Air Base and retirement in 1995.  But after a few years she took up tutoring with a local charity (one child at a time was a pleasure) for ten more years. 

          Van’s work included three years in the Philippines where vacations included touring parts of East Asia and a gamey road trip in northern Luzon.  On a two-year posting in Liberia, their 4WD Chevy Blazer took them to Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.  Best was probably the bush taxi ride from Bamako to Bandiagara and the Dogon country. 

          She was a lifelong athlete in field hockey, tennis, swimming and girls basketball (the latter in the “six-on- six” days when players were limited to half court, which particularly rankled Cindy).  Van took up racquetball after finding he was no match for her in tennis. 

           Although the tennis faded with age, hiking, birdwatching and quilting kept Cindy busy.  Travelling was a itch first scratched when she and a Jackson classmate toured Europe in Cindy's new red VW the summer after graduation from Tufts.  The itch didn’t fade and after retirement she and Van spent a cumulative 16 months living in a VW camper while driving around Europe and the US; all told, they were away from Reston about 40 percent of the time.

          Her parents’ hilltop cabin in Maine played a big part in her early life and inspired building a cabin on nearby Long Lake where she enjoyed kayaking, snorkeling, skiing and poking around in the woods.  In 2004, she achieved her life goal of climbing all forty-seven 4,000 footers in the White Mountains.  

          During much of this, Cindy was also raising two wonderful daughters who went on to careers and children of their own.   She was immensely pleased to host everyone at the cabin for several weeks each summer. 

 

          Cindy lived a full life and toward the end said she “was ready”.  That may be what fate called for but, absent her cancer, she was headed for more adventures. 

          A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, February 16th, from 2:30 to 5:30  in the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne (1609 Washington Plaza North).  If you plan to attend, please let us know at van.foster@comcast.net or 703.437.3138.

Reston: January 5th

            Cindy passed away on Sunday, January 5^th, peacefully in her bed at home.  The hospice service had been invaluable in providing thrice-weekly nursing care, pain management and sympathetic advice.  Dana was fortuitously able to remain in Reston after the family Christmas to help with Cindy.  With all the care, Cindy was comfortable and pain-free to the end. 

            Cindy got to experience a last joyous family Christmas in Reston including Lisa, Morgan, Dana, Marc, and Lucy (Lisa’s husband John and son Jack couldn’t make it when Jack got sick, and Dana’s stepson Zach was spending Christmas with his mother.)  Cindy particularly enjoyed watching the tree get set up and decorated, and also loved opening her Christmas stocking and presents.  

            Plans for commemorating Cindy are gestating but will probably include an informal celebration of life in Reston and a summer family ceremony in Maine.