Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs resident Tina Fielding died Nov. 4, 2005, of lung cancer. She was 48. She was born June 22, 1957, in New Haven, Conn., to Donald R. and Marjorie Kelly Meredith.

She was raised in Madison, Conn., where she graduated from Danial Hand High School in 1975. There she met John Robert Hallam Fielding, and she married him Sept. 21, 1985, at St. Margaret's Catholic Church, which she had attended during her childhood. She gave birth to her only child, Christie Marie Meredith Fielding, on July 20, 1989, in Middletown, Conn. She worked for Uarco Printing Co. in Deep River, the L.C. Doane marine lighting fixtures company in Essex and Clinton Nurseries in Westbrook in administrative positions.

In 1994, the family moved to her husband's childhood home of Orem, Utah. Her daughter grew up there with her many second cousins of the Stratton clan, and Tina worked with them in the fruit farming and plant nursery business. She worked first in retail sales and tending plants in the greenhouses, then managed the administrative business for C. K. Farms and Cascade Shadows Plant and Garden Center. She was very happy in Utah Valley and had hoped to retire there someday.

She was so dedicated to her daughter's education that, in 2002, she agreed to move to a much colder climate than she preferred so that Christie could attend John's alma mater, The Lowell Whiteman School, where Christie is a junior. She grew to love the town and the people she met while working in the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel reservations department and later at Steamboat Central Reservations. She was so dedicated to contributing her help to the team there that when she became too ill to go to work, the people at Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. made special arrangements that allowed her to work from home until just a few days before her death. The family greatly appreciates that consideration. She was so dedicated to her friends and family that she made many long trips in great discomfort to attend the away games of the Steamboat Springs High School fast-pitch softball team to cheer for Christie and her teammates, and she made painful visits to say goodbye to loved ones in Utah Valley.

She always was a hard worker and she loved working on the additions and improvements to the old house her family bought at Oak and 12th streets. Her favorite project was the large garden they built on the once-scrubby hillside above Oak Street. With the garden clearly in the public view, she came to appreciate the frequent compliments from passersby and the many helpful hints that contributed to her learning about the plants and techniques that would allow a garden to thrive in this area. Her husband is planting a memorial grove there of many types of birches, willows and conifers as a tribute to that love.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her older sister, Linda M. Coward. She is survived by her husband; her daughter; and her older brother, Don R. Meredith Jr. of Wallingford, Conn.

A funeral is at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Holy Name Catholic Church. Another service is Saturday at the St. Francis Church in Orem, Utah, after a viewing Friday at the Walker Sanderson Funeral Home in Orem. Burial will be at the Orem City Cemetery.

Tina was a good friend, a great wife, a wonderful mother and a beautiful spirit. The love she gave changed many lives for the better, and she will be sadly missed.