Obituary for Christina M. "Tina" Neil-Zuber
Tina Neil, 75, of New Martinsville, WV, formerly of Wuerzburg, Germany, passed away on the afternoon of 25 February, with her husband and daughter at her side.
She is survived by her sister, Cynthia Quintal, of Tasmania, Australia, her daughter, Anja Kiessling, grandson, Benjamin Kiessling, granddaughter Lea Kiessling, great-grandson, Joscha Kiessling, of Ansbach, Germany, granddaughter Nadine Kiessling, of Friedrichshafen, Germany, and her husband of 32 years, Major Terence Zuber.
As a student at Wittenberg University in Ohio, Tina went in her junior year in 1966 to Germany and returned to America 38 years later, with only a short time spent in the US completing her BA in German in Seattle and her MA in Albany. In Germany she worked principally as a senior instructor at the Translator School in Wuerzburg, Germany, teaching German-English translation, including simultaneous translation. She taught English at West Virginia Northern New Martinsville. She also translated some 40 books into English. Tina learned languages easily. She spoke good Italian and Greek and her French was improving.
Tina and Terry met when she taught him the finer points of German in 1977. They married in 1989 and spent almost every August for the next 15 years exploring two or three counties in Great Britain in detail, until they had seen the entire island. They would tent camp, go on a hike (the hiking and scenery in GB are wonderful), go to a tea shop, and then see a National Trust property (think Downton Abbey – and yes, they did visit the real Downton, Highclere Castle) or an English Heritage site (mostly medieval ruins) and churches. They practically lived off scones. They did the same for two-week trips until they had seen all of France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Austria, the Czech Republic, western Turkey and Tunisia. Several trips were made to Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna and Florence.
Tina read voraciously, reclining on her chaise longue, from classics to modern literature. Her library included two six-foot bookshelves, and she had read every book in them. When she became ill, Terry would read to her at night before bed: Longfellow (The Song of Hiawatha, the Courtship of Miles Standish, Evangeline), Aristophanes (The Frogs, The Birds, The Clouds, The Knights, Lysistrata). They were just able to finish Homer’s Odyssey.
Tina loved long-distance running. In Germany she ran five or six miles daily and frequently took ten-mile cross-country hill runs. She participated in Army Europe 10 kilometer and Half-Marathon (21 kilometers, 13.1 miles) races and always finished at the top of the women’s category and won her age group. Her half-marathon times were usually around 1 hour 45 minutes. Her first trip with Terry was a week of cross-country skiing in the Black Forest. Then hiking in the Alps. She ran 5 kilometer races in Ohio and WV. After she had a hip replacement, Tina and Terry would take a daily walk. She was always in outstanding physical condition. To the end she had the blood pressure and pulse of a 20 year-old college girl on the cross-country team.
For ten years Tina and Terry took Benjamin and Nadine skiing (with Uno after supper), mostly at St. Anton, Austria. They took the grandchildren and Anja to southern England, London and the Cotswolds, Disney World and Florida, New York City and Cape May, Washington DC, and Harry Potter World.
In 2004, having looked at Victorian houses from Oklahoma to North Carolina, they bought an 1884 Victorian, the Clark House, in New Martinsville, which Tina completely redecorated in a 1890s style to match their antique German furniture. Pittsburgh proved to be an unexpected joy, with excellent theater, ballet, two opera companies, a symphony orchestra and, last not least, The Strip. She loved New Martinsville (which was “like Mayberry”) and made many friends there. She especially loved the Prodigy Fitness Center and the Public Library. Tina and Terry travelled widely in the US, especially New England, and, with Benjamin and his wife, Denise, to San Francisco.
In the summer of 2019 they took a wonderful two-week trip to Burgundy in central France. That December, Tina complained of pain in her lower chest to her health-care provider, who for the next six months prescribed increasing doses of pain-killers. In June 2020, at the advice of a member of St. Ann’s church, who is also a nurse, Tina insisted that her health-care provider actually conduct medical testing. When these tests at Wetzel County Hospital were inconclusive, she went to Wheeling Hospital and was admitted for a week. Tests there and in Pittsburgh determined on 8 July that she had Stage 4 (inoperable and fatal) pancreatic cancer, which was so far advanced that chemotherapy was utterly ineffective, indeed counter-productive for her quality of life. On 20 January 2021 Tina was referred to hospice. It stands to reason that had seven months not been wasted, her outcome may well have been much different. Tina was taken from us far too soon.
The family wants to thank Journey Hospice of Sistersville for the outstanding care they provided Tina. Our neighbors were wonderful. Special mention must be made for Ben Nice, who drove twice to Pittsburgh to pick up Anja and Nadine, and the Hadleys took Nadine to the airport. Santina Vigliotti continually gave us wonderful breakfasts and dinners. She should open a restaurant.
Tina will be interred in the cemetery in Trisdorf, near Ansbach, Germany.
A memorial service will be conducted as soon as possible.
Tina once sent Terry a card with a painting by Fragonard “The Lover Crowned” (1773), which is in the Frick Collection in New York, a museum she had visited many times. Inside she wrote: Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following thee: for whither thou go, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Nothing but death part thee and me. (Ruth 1:16)
She is survived by her sister, Cynthia Quintal, of Tasmania, Australia, her daughter, Anja Kiessling, grandson, Benjamin Kiessling, granddaughter Lea Kiessling, great-grandson, Joscha Kiessling, of Ansbach, Germany, granddaughter Nadine Kiessling, of Friedrichshafen, Germany, and her husband of 32 years, Major Terence Zuber.
As a student at Wittenberg University in Ohio, Tina went in her junior year in 1966 to Germany and returned to America 38 years later, with only a short time spent in the US completing her BA in German in Seattle and her MA in Albany. In Germany she worked principally as a senior instructor at the Translator School in Wuerzburg, Germany, teaching German-English translation, including simultaneous translation. She taught English at West Virginia Northern New Martinsville. She also translated some 40 books into English. Tina learned languages easily. She spoke good Italian and Greek and her French was improving.
Tina and Terry met when she taught him the finer points of German in 1977. They married in 1989 and spent almost every August for the next 15 years exploring two or three counties in Great Britain in detail, until they had seen the entire island. They would tent camp, go on a hike (the hiking and scenery in GB are wonderful), go to a tea shop, and then see a National Trust property (think Downton Abbey – and yes, they did visit the real Downton, Highclere Castle) or an English Heritage site (mostly medieval ruins) and churches. They practically lived off scones. They did the same for two-week trips until they had seen all of France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Austria, the Czech Republic, western Turkey and Tunisia. Several trips were made to Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna and Florence.
Tina read voraciously, reclining on her chaise longue, from classics to modern literature. Her library included two six-foot bookshelves, and she had read every book in them. When she became ill, Terry would read to her at night before bed: Longfellow (The Song of Hiawatha, the Courtship of Miles Standish, Evangeline), Aristophanes (The Frogs, The Birds, The Clouds, The Knights, Lysistrata). They were just able to finish Homer’s Odyssey.
Tina loved long-distance running. In Germany she ran five or six miles daily and frequently took ten-mile cross-country hill runs. She participated in Army Europe 10 kilometer and Half-Marathon (21 kilometers, 13.1 miles) races and always finished at the top of the women’s category and won her age group. Her half-marathon times were usually around 1 hour 45 minutes. Her first trip with Terry was a week of cross-country skiing in the Black Forest. Then hiking in the Alps. She ran 5 kilometer races in Ohio and WV. After she had a hip replacement, Tina and Terry would take a daily walk. She was always in outstanding physical condition. To the end she had the blood pressure and pulse of a 20 year-old college girl on the cross-country team.
For ten years Tina and Terry took Benjamin and Nadine skiing (with Uno after supper), mostly at St. Anton, Austria. They took the grandchildren and Anja to southern England, London and the Cotswolds, Disney World and Florida, New York City and Cape May, Washington DC, and Harry Potter World.
In 2004, having looked at Victorian houses from Oklahoma to North Carolina, they bought an 1884 Victorian, the Clark House, in New Martinsville, which Tina completely redecorated in a 1890s style to match their antique German furniture. Pittsburgh proved to be an unexpected joy, with excellent theater, ballet, two opera companies, a symphony orchestra and, last not least, The Strip. She loved New Martinsville (which was “like Mayberry”) and made many friends there. She especially loved the Prodigy Fitness Center and the Public Library. Tina and Terry travelled widely in the US, especially New England, and, with Benjamin and his wife, Denise, to San Francisco.
In the summer of 2019 they took a wonderful two-week trip to Burgundy in central France. That December, Tina complained of pain in her lower chest to her health-care provider, who for the next six months prescribed increasing doses of pain-killers. In June 2020, at the advice of a member of St. Ann’s church, who is also a nurse, Tina insisted that her health-care provider actually conduct medical testing. When these tests at Wetzel County Hospital were inconclusive, she went to Wheeling Hospital and was admitted for a week. Tests there and in Pittsburgh determined on 8 July that she had Stage 4 (inoperable and fatal) pancreatic cancer, which was so far advanced that chemotherapy was utterly ineffective, indeed counter-productive for her quality of life. On 20 January 2021 Tina was referred to hospice. It stands to reason that had seven months not been wasted, her outcome may well have been much different. Tina was taken from us far too soon.
The family wants to thank Journey Hospice of Sistersville for the outstanding care they provided Tina. Our neighbors were wonderful. Special mention must be made for Ben Nice, who drove twice to Pittsburgh to pick up Anja and Nadine, and the Hadleys took Nadine to the airport. Santina Vigliotti continually gave us wonderful breakfasts and dinners. She should open a restaurant.
Tina will be interred in the cemetery in Trisdorf, near Ansbach, Germany.
A memorial service will be conducted as soon as possible.
Tina once sent Terry a card with a painting by Fragonard “The Lover Crowned” (1773), which is in the Frick Collection in New York, a museum she had visited many times. Inside she wrote: Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following thee: for whither thou go, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Nothing but death part thee and me. (Ruth 1:16)