Obituary of Margaret Oster

Margaret Oster, a woman of faith and family passed away after a short illness at the age of 94. She was a woman of great insight and wrote down these words “... But I think life can be what you make it with patience, the love of God, hard work, and laughter here and there. But without faith and love of God, I wouldn’t be writing this. Everyone needs some kind of faith and religion to help through the tough times.” It was all her life experiences and family influences that brought her to such astute thoughts. Margaret was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her family moved to the United States when she was 5 years old. They lived in a modest home in Dorchester, but surrounded with cousins, fellow Scottish and Irish immigrants. Growing up with little, she still felt she was blessed with all her faith, family and friends. Her childhood memories were sharing an unheated bedroom with her 2 sisters and nights at home filled with cousins and friends, visiting, eating, laughing, and singing Scottish songs. Work was not a drudgery, but a life experience which she appreciated whether it was cleaning homes, being a Nannie, waitress at Howard Johnsons, or working at Polaroid making lenses to help in the war effort. She often recalled dancing at the Wonderland Ballroom in Revere, the Totem Pole in Newton, dances in Marshfield, visiting New York City and the World’s Fair, days at Nantasket Beach, Walden Pond, and Duxbury Beach. She shared with her family the exuberance she felt the day World War II ended. She enjoyed working at New England Telephone first as a telephone operator and later working with computers. She had a strong connection to Watertown where she lived for 30 plus years and raised her children. St. Patrick’s Church still holds a special place in her heart. She enjoyed living her last 35 years in Burlington watching her grandchildren come into this world and become young adults. She spent those years as a parishioner at St. Margaret’s Church and always made time for the daily mass on television. She never was a wealthy woman, but she was a happy woman, who appreciated the many gifts God had showered her with, which was good health, family, faith, and friends. Margaret was the loving wife of the late Frank Oster. She met him when he was 14 years old and working at the bakery with her father, John Buchanan. She wrote to him while he served in WW II, and married him after he returned from the war. She was the devoted mother of Donald & his wife Jill of Natick, David & his wife Mary of Natick, Dianne Euele & her husband Mike of Acton, Laurie Skinner & her husband Jeff of Burlington, and the late Frank “Jerry” Oster. She was the mother-in-law of Kathy Brown of ME. She was the loving sister of Barbara Morrissey of Burlington, Georgia Connors of Milford, CT, the late Dorothy Koch, John and William Buchanan. Margaret was the proud grandmother of Michael, Jeffrey, Jaclyn, & David Joseph “DJ” Oster, Danielle & Derek Skinner, and Joseph & Nina Euele and great grandmother of Taegan Oster. Funeral from the Edward V. Sullivan Funeral Home, 43 Winn St., BURLINGTON (exit 34 off Rt. 128/95, Woburn side) on Monday, April 21 at 8:30 a.m. Followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Margaret’s Church, 111 Winn St., Burlington at 10 a.m. Interment in will be at 1:30 at the MA National Veteran’s Cemetery, Bourne MA. In lieu of flowers, memorials in Margaret’s name may be made to the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Institutional Advancement (for Palliative Care), 41 Mall Road, Burlington, MA 01805.