CHRISTINE (TINA) ELAINE NERESON Aug. 8, 1952 – May 9, 2023
I am greatly saddened to report the death of my sister, Christine (Tina) Elaine Nereson, on May 9, 2023, in San Clemente, CA.
Tina was born August 8, 1952, in Los Alamos, NM, and attended Mesa Elementary School, where her mother was a teacher, Pueblo Junior High, and Los Alamos High School, where she graduated in 1970.
In her school years she studied ballet, piano and viola, picked up some guitar and played first chair viola in the University of Arizona symphony orchestra. She enjoyed skiing and ice skating and was on the swim team in high school and helped her dad teach a water safety course.
After a year or so at ENMU and U of AZ, she transferred to Arizona State University and earned a degree in sociology. She worked briefly as an ambulance driver but mainly as a counselor at a halfway house. She married John Dolegowski, a hydrogeologist in 1987, and they lived in Tempe and Tucson, later settling in San Clemente, CA. A daughter, Alissa, was born in 1995.
Shortly after the birth of her daughter, Tina started showing signs of mental and physical disturbance such as tremors, loss of balance control and one eyelid, difficulty with swallowing, impaired speech and vision, and frequent migraine headaches. It was found she had a burst blood vessel at the brain stem. She had an operation to remove the blood clot, and subsequent surgeries which never showed dramatic results, and her condition continued to worsen as the years passed.
She had to quit most of the activities and hobbies that she enjoyed — viola, skiing, swimming, driving, and could only read large print books. Involuntary tremors kept her from anything requiring fine motor control such as sewing, cooking and writing or operation of a computer. Doctors maintained they had done all they could do without further jeopardizing her senses.
Tina valiantly clung on to life, but most of it became relegated to a wheelchair, the bathroom, and bed. Twenty five years went by until last week she had become fully paraplegic and couldn’t even talk.
Her daughter grew up essentially with no mother. John had to fill that role as best he could.
In the last several months Tina’s respiratory rate became extremely low — not enough oxygen to sustain life. She was removed to a facility in Santa Ana with a higher level of care, but there was just nothing they could do that would improve her condition.
The main culprit was periodic bleeding at the brain stem, which caused further loss of faculties and senses, and inhalation of food particles, causing pneumonia and requiring hospitalization several times.
The time to be released from a life that was devoid of anything fun or meaningful had come and she passed on last week (May 8 or 9, 2023).
She was preceded in death by a brother, Brian; parents Norris and Jean; and is survived by her husband, John; daughter, Alissa; brothers David and Kenneth (Heidi); and nephews Will (Danielle), Quinn (Holly), and Ryan.
Alissa continues to live at home with her dad, John, in San Clemente. She turned 28 last February. I know Tina’s in a better place without all those tubes and equipment, never-ending pain and headaches, and inability to do almost anything normally.
Because of previously arranged family obligations, a memorial service won’t be held until late in May or even in June.