Pamela Foster died peacefully at the age of 92 in the Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, USA on Sunday 20 August, after a short acute illness.
Born in 1931, the elder daughter of Heinz and Inger Müller von Weissenburg, a German-Danish couple then living in London, Foster grew up in Cape Town, and spent summer holidays in Hermanus.
After matriculating from Herschel Girls School she graduated with a BA from Stellenbosch University, and in 1953 married Patrick Foster, a young anaesthesiologist. Following periods living in the US and UK, the couple returned to the Cape, where they lived in Rondebosch and raised four children. For many years, Foster worked as an academic administrator at UCT, eventually as the vice-chancellor’s executive assistant.
A consummate cook, hostess, interior decorator and gardener, and life-long dog lover, she was a widely read supporter of arts and culture, and known for her elegant personal style. In the late 1980s she and her husband, by then department chair of anaesthesiology at Tygerberg Hospital, relocated to the US, firstly to Pittsburgh, and then to Hershey, where their eldest son Crispin practised medicine, and Patrick took up a position at the Penn State Medical Center. After Patrick retired, the couple travelled extensively, and spent US winters in their Hermanus condominium.
In Hershey, as resident of Oakmont, Cambridge Commons, and most recently, Country Meadows retirement community, Foster had a wide circle of friends and neighbours who sustained her after her husband’s death in 2012.
She was a faithful patron of the Hershey Public Library, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and the independent Midtown Cinema, and volunteered at the Hershey Medical Center and the Hershey History Center.
The Fosters were predeceased by two sons, Nicholas (1970) and Crispin (2014). She will be deeply missed by her sister, Birte, as well as many other relatives and friends in South Africa, son Jeremy and partner Gary, daughter Tansy and partner Willi, daughter-in-law Cornelia (née Spratt); grandson Dominic and wife Jessica, granddaughter Tiffany and husband Jason and beloved great-grandchildren Grayson, Sloane and Frazey. A celebration of Foster’s life is planned for November; those interested in attending remotely are asked to contact the family for more information.
