Tina Dekker

Tina Dekker, 90, of Sioux Center, Iowa died Monday, October 4, 2021, at Royale Meadows Care Center in Sioux Center, IA. A memorial service will be held at 2:00PM on Saturday, October 16, 2021, at the Covenant Christian Reformed church of Sioux Center, Iowa with Rev. Joel Kok officiating. Tina Roosma was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands in October of 1930, the seventh child of Gerrit and Rinske (nee Bosma) Roosma. She recalled a happy childhood as the youngest sibling of five brothers and one sister, in a busy household where her parents tended a large vegetable garden and spent time planting, harvesting, cooking and preserving food for an active family during the challenging years of the depression. Her home on the west side of Haarlem had a view of cultivated fields of daffodils and tulips, and she fondly remembered a time when her brother left home to be married and she was able to have a room of her own that looked across those fields. Tina lived through the difficult years of World War II in Europe as an elementary and early high school student, and enjoyed her classes in English and Art. Her skills as an artist were recognized early and began a lifelong interest in art, especially in watercolors and oil painting. Tina had many stories about the hard times of the war, and always focused on the ways that people helped each other, and how her family worked together to find ways to make ends meet even through the challenges of food shortages and other trials. After the war Tina met Joop (Joe) Dekker, a Dutchman from the Indonesian Island of Sumatra who had also lived through the war in a different part of the world. After a few years of courtship they decided to get married, and Joe left for Tanzania where a job was awaiting him. Tina followed, nine months later, and they were married in a small church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They worked at an experimental farm for three years and while there Rob, their oldest son was born. After three years they went on furlough to Holland where Rin was born. Soon thereafter, plans were made to emigrate to America. New Jersey became their new home and a third child, Tim, was born, on a third continent. After they arrived in America Joe worked in electronics but decided in 1975 to start his own business building landscaped water gardens in residential and commercial settings. His company was called the Waterscaping Company, and Tina played a critical role in planning the new company, thinking through the business plan and taking on the big risk of a new venture with three children in the middle of, again, tough economic times. Joe and Tina’s venture succeeded and they ran their company for decades, building hundreds of beautiful gardens throughout the New Jersey area. Joe handled the design and construction of the water gardens, and Tina brought her gardening skills and an eye for design to create natural plantings that complemented the streams and ponds that Joe built. The company was a combination of their artistic talents, technical skills, creativity and resourcefulness that brought joy to many people. Tina and Joe enjoyed camping, traveling around the country, visiting with children and grandchildren, and spending time with friends. Tina had a lifelong love of music and liked to turn up the stereo and play booming classical music while she was cleaning the house. She was also active in her church, and was an advocate for women’s roles in church leadership, serving as one of the first female elders in her Christian Reformed classis. In June 2012, Joe and Tina moved to Iowa in order to enjoy a slower pace, more personalized health care and the love of their daughter Rin. They were grateful for the caring community they found there, including their old New Jersey friend Paul Fessler and his family. Joe passed away in May of 2017. Tina continued her artistic endeavors throughout her life, focusing primarily on her painting in oils. Her paintings are prized possessions of the family and reflect a lifelong appreciation for beauty and color that started with the flower fields of her childhood home in the Netherlands. Ma had a deep appreciation for art and beauty, loved her husband, children, grandchildren and extended family and friends endlessly and served the Lord all her life. She is survived by three children, Rob (wife, Carol) Dekker of Wantage, N.J., Rin (husband, Chris) Goedhart of Sioux Center, IA and Tim (wife, Mary) Dekker of Ann Arbor, MI; eight grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Elizabeth (husband, Eric) Rozenberg of The Netherlands; and many other extended family. She was preceded in death by her husband and her parents, Gerrit and Rinske Roosma.