Christina F Holbrook

A memorial service for Tina will be held this Friday, October 11 at 11 am, at Florida Gardens Baptist Church. Family will be receiving visitors beginning at 10:30 am.

Florida Gardens Baptist Church

7800 Lake Worth Rd, Lake Worth FL

(561) 964-7693

Christina Flander – Tina – was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1939 to Carl Eric Flander and Margareta Rosendale Flander. In 1940, in the midst of World War II and the Finnish “winter war”, one-year-old Tina and her parents boarded a freighter in the then-Finnish province of Petsamo and arrived two weeks later in the United States. She is pictured in a newspaper photo of the time as “the youngest new arrival”.

The Flander family began their life in the United States in Chillicothe, Ohio, where Tina’s father was hired as an executive for a paper company. The family later moved to New York. From her earliest childhood Tina had an adventurous spirit. In her own words, she was often “up to mischief”: hopping aboard a city bus on her own at the age of six to tour the town, stealing apples from a neighbor’s orchard, or climbing a train trestle with a friend and jumping off moments before the oncoming locomotive came barreling down the tracks.

The Flanders settled in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Tina attended the private Masters School for girls and later went on to earn her associates degree at Colby Sawyer College. Tina was an avid skier from an early age; on a ski trip at age 20, she met a young lawyer who had graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law School named Dean Holbrook. Although Tina was not impressed with Dean’s skiing style the young man’s kindness, sense of humor, and persistence paid off. The two were married on July 16,1960 and remained devoted to each other throughout their long married life. Dean passed away in 2013.

Tina and Dean had three children, Christina, Elaine and Eric. They raised their family in Scarsdale, New York, and in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire where they had a summer home for many years. Adventures with her family – hiking and swimming in the White Mountains, family getaways that included a road trip through the Scottish Highlands, impromptu excursions where kids were pulled out of school to visit a museum or take a long walk along the Hudson River – were a great source of enjoyment for Tina.

Tina also loved animals and she and Dean had countless rescue dogs and cats during their lifetime. In her final weeks, Tina’s adopted cat Mittens remained steadfastly curled beside her, only leaving her side to eat.

As the children grew up and began to leave for college, Tina turned her attention to helping her husband with his business. She became his assistant in his law office, and her commitment to sharing more deeply in his work was important and meaningful to them both.

In the later years of their marriage, Tina and Dean built a log house in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. With her children now grown and creating lives of their own, Tina enjoyed a time of companionship and gentle adventure with her husband. They planted a vegetable garden, walked in the woods, canoed in the lakes and rivers, and sat on their porch in the summer evenings or by a roaring fire in the winter.

In 2015, following Dean’s death in 2013, Tina moved to West Palm Beach Florida to be closer to her three children and four grandchildren. She enjoyed being a part of their lives and watching her grandchildren grow up. Tina and Dean were members of the Faith Lutheran Brethren Church in Briarcliff Manor, New York; upon relocating to Florida, Tina became a member of Florida Gardens Baptist Church in Lake Worth. In her later years, Tina became more committed to strengthening her faith and a daily practice of studying the bible. Tina had always been busy and active throughout her life. And so she felt blessed to be able to live so independently, even after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and to be able to celebrate her 80th birthday this past summer with her children and grandchildren.

Tina never stopped missing her best friend, soul mate and husband Dean. On Monday September 23, 2019, she passed away knowing that she would be joining him in eternal life.

Tina will be missed so much by her three children: Christina Holbrook (Alan Dulit) of Breckenridge Colorado; Elaine Jaffin (Scott Jaffin) of Wellington, Florida; and Eric Holbrook (Roberta Holbrook) of Royal Palm Beach Florida. Tina was incredibly proud of her four grandchildren: Amanda Sater, Kimberly Jaffin, George Jaffin, and Nicholas Holbrook. All of us will miss her strong daily presence in our lives and her words of advice, love and encouragement.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at https://www.neptunesociety.com for the Holbrook family.