Jean Foster

Jean Ann Foster, age 50, of Grand Forks, ND passed away the afternoon of July 2, 2008 at MeritCare Hospital in Fargo with loving family at her side. Jean was born on May 13,1958 at Williston, ND, the daughter of Frank and Myrtle Bar. About half way through her second year of life, Jean was hospitalized during a bout of paralysis from the neck down. While diagnosed at the time as polyneuritis, this illness was later rediagnosed as polio, by means of a muscle biopsy performed in the early 1990s. Although quickly recovering from this paralysis, Jean was left through toddlerhood and childhood with residual effects of impaired mobility that lasted a lifetime. Hospital stays, at Deaconess Hospital in Grand Forks and at, Shriners Hospital in Minnesota, with surgeries to assist in mobility, were a significant element in Jean's school-age years. There was, though, a very special ray of sunshine: during a stay at Shriners Jean made the personal commitment to Jesus Christ that became a sustaining force for hope, love and strength throughout her life. In her teens, Jean learned to play both 6- and 12-string guitar. Although told by doctors, when she married Jim Fischer in 1978, that bearing children was more than her system could handle, Jean was not deterred, and she gave birth by natural delivery to two children: son Nate in 1979 and daughter Angela in 1982. Jean always remembered these deliveries as the proudest moments of her life. After divorce ended her first marriage in 1986, Jean was traveling with her two children in June 1987 by AMTRAK train from Illinois, where she lived at the time, to a family reunion in Williston, ND. During this trip she met Mark Foster, who was returning to his home near N evada City , CA from a computer show in Chicago. Following a long-distance courtship and a subsequent move by both Mark and Jean from their respective states to towns a short drive apart in North Dakota, Jean and Mark married in Dickinson, ND in 1989. Jean's unassisted walk down the aisle on June 17,1989 in church wedding ceremonies stood out second only to giving birth as her proudest moment. Later that year, the newly formed Foster family of four moved from Dickinson to Grand Forks where Mark began studies in history at the University of North Dakota. Jean also took a few courses at UND, including one in ancient and medieval world history which Mark and I ean took together. Both earned an A grade in that course. As the 1990s began, Jean developed symptoms of post-polio syndrome which greatly increased daily fatigue, and she needed to withdraw from studies at UND. While Mark went on to graduate studies in History and then in English, the Foster family resided in student housing, including six years in a comfortable and handicapped-accessible family suite at 2 Stanford Road which included a big pantry room with their own washer and dryer. Jean took pride in handling the laundry chores herself, working from a wheelchair. A favorite hobby during these years was cross- stitching. Once Angela graduated from high school in 2000, Jean and Mark moved to a single-level apartment building near the hospital in Grand Forks. About the time of this move, Jean transitioned from a manual wheelchair to the first of two powered wheelchairs. Mark completed his PhD in English while providing home care for Jean and accompanying her to her frequent medical appointments for diabetes and other conditions which exacerbated the effects of her gradually worsening post-polio syndrome. Jean and Mark adopted a cat, Megan, from the Humane Society in the autumn of2000. This cat was a special source of joy to Jean and reminded her of her favorite cat from childhood, a siamese named Cindy. As the 21st Century got under way, Jean found opportunities to participate in volunteer work at Altru Hospital and also for the Prairie Rose State Games when they came to Grand Forks. Favorite TV shows were a highlight of Jean's day, and included Days of our Lives around the turn of the century, before the show began to take on, for her tastes, too much of a reality TV aspect during the summer of 2001. After this, Jean' s favorites were the Law and Order and Animal Cops/ Animal Precinct series, as well as reruns of Golden Girls and Mash. Respiratory complications of post-polio set in during the middle of the OOs decade, but were managed successfully with use of a C- PAP and later a BiPab machine at night. A few days after participating in caucuses on the UND campus to cast her vote in the 2008 Presidential primary, Jean developed severe abdominal pain and needed to go to the ER. Admitted directly to the hospital for surgery to remove a kidney stone, the source of this pain, at the end of February 2008, severe pneumonia set in not long afterwards and prolonged her hospital stay, which then transitioned to inpatient physical rehabilitation. Jean recovered only enough to see a few brief days at home in late March before needing to be readmitted when seriously low oxygen saturation levels were discovered during an outpatient physical therapy visit. The subsequent round of hospitalizations included transfer to more specialized facilities in Fargo, where Jean finally succumbed to respiratory failure. Jean wore a wristband with this Biblical quotation: Love is patient, Love is kind. It was these words which became the epitaph for Jean's life and her passing as her husband, children, and other family gathered around Jean's bedside during her final hours on July 2, 2008.