Christine Pauline Dewan

Christine Pauline (Artelis) Dewan
Born in San Francisco, California on November 21, 1960
Departed on June 18, 2025 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan
Visitation: Sunday, June 29, 2025
Funeral: Monday, June 30, 2025
Cemetery: Washtenong Memorial Cemetery, Ann Arbor, MI
CHRISTINE PAULINE (Artelis) DEWAN – LOVING WIFE, MOTHER, DAUGHTER & SISTER
Christine Pauline Dewan lived life with a burning passion, and loved her family and friends deeply. Early on, the odds of her survival were stacked against her. When she was six months old, she was diagnosed with a tumor on one of her kidneys, and had to have the kidney removed. She was given only a few months to live by some doctors, another said she might not make it past the age of twenty. Because of the radiation and chemotherapy she endured, another doctor predicted she might never grow back any hair. She proved them all wrong. She cherished every day, and made the life of every person she encountered better and brighter. She was the most loving, giving, virtuous person God has ever placed on this Earth. Her smile was infectious, and when you were near her, she made you feel that everything was going to be alright.
Christine Pauline Artelis was born on November 21, 1960 at Children's Hospital in San Francisco, California to George and Penelope Artelis. She had a favorite aunt, Angie Markel (one of her mother's older sisters), whom she and her sister Eleni would stay with on weekends when her parents worked at the family grocery store. Christine loved to endlessly roller skate and bounce on her pogo stick as a child; quite the feat, considering the hilly sidewalks of San Francisco. She attended Mercy High School in San Francisco, and during summer break between eleventh and twelfth grades, studied at Mon Choisy finishing school in Switzerland. After graduating from Mercy High, she continued her studies abroad at another Swiss finishing school: Matin Calme, in La Tour-de-Pelz, Switzerland, for a full school year, where the entire curriculum was taught in French. She then attended the University of San Francisco, where she graduated with honors, double-majoring in Communication Studies and French. Then, it was on to Dominican College, in San Raphael, California, where she obtained her teaching credential. She taught elementary school for the next several years, in both San Francisco and Los Angeles.
It was in Los Angeles that she met Matthew James Dewan on April 28, 1991. Matthew was raised in Royal Oak, Michigan. They were married on July 19, 1992, at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles, and honeymooned in Paris, France. They relocated to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in August 1998. Christine fulfilled her lifelong dream of attending law school at the University of Detroit Mercy in 2000. She was sworn in as an attorney in Michigan in May of 2004, but chose to forego law work in order to raise their son, Alexei, who arrived via adoption from Russia on September 24, 2004 at the age of eighteen months. She wanted her face to be the first thing he saw every morning when he woke up, and her voice the first thing he heard. Her greatest joy was being a mother, and her proudest accomplishment is the fine, young man her son has become. She and her husband Matthew, also a licensed attorney in Michigan, ran their own law practice, the Dewan Legal Group, for many years.
Christine was a skilled, self-taught pianist, who could improvise melodies out of thin air. She was a gifted sculptor, and a voracious devourer of fashion magazines. She loved to travel, visiting Greece countless times, France, England, Switzerland, Monte Carlo, Russia, Tahiti and Bermuda. She loved to read, her favorite authors being Agatha Christie, Jane Austen and Peter Mayle. But most of all, it was her decency and generous spirit which endeared her to every person she met. She saw the best in everyone and would do anything to help anyone at any time.
Family will receive friends at Lynch & Sons Funeral Home, 1368 N. Crooks Road, Clawson (just south of Maple), Sunday, June 29, between 3-8 pm. Trisagion at 7 pm.
Funeral service is Monday, June 30, at 11 am at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 43816 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills. Visitation at church begins at 10:30 am. Makaria luncheon to follow in the St. George small hall.
Burial at Washtenong Memorial Park, 3771 Whitmore Lake Road, Ann Arbor, at 3 pm, Monday, June 30.
Please make all donations on Christine's behalf to the National Kidney Foundation, 30 East 33rd Street, New York, NY, 10016, or The Rainbow Connection, 621 W. University, Rochester, MI 48307. Thank you.