Obituaries

In the early hours of October 22, 2022, after waking long enough to smile one more time at her
daughter Patricia and her two granddaughters, Alison and Emily, Livia Walker left us. It was
the quiet, peaceful ending of a remarkable, long, and sometimes tumultuous life of 100 years
and two months.

Livia survived three husbands and was the center of her large family of three children, eight
grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.

Livia spent her youth in Riga, capital of Latvia, a cosmopolitan port city with a large German
minority. The peaceful life in Riga came to a sudden end in 1939 with World War II. Her family
was dispersed around the globe and her “wandering years” began – Poland, Germany, Texas
USA, France, – and, finally, for more than 60 years, in the wonderful Northwest USA.

Riga was her “alte Heimat”(old hometown) and Seattle became her “neue Heimat” (new
hometown). Seattle, like Riga, a cosmopolitan city, a port open to the world, with a temperate
climate and above all many friends, also of younger generations!

Livia’s father, a German philosopher, passed away early and her mother returned to the
“bosom of her family”, all living in the large “Kablitz-Haus”, today, an Art Deco Museum, in
Riga which her grandfather, Richard Kablitz (see Wikipedia), an industrialist, had bought in
1906.

Livia often spoke about her fond memories of long summers in the family compound on
Jurmala Beach, close to Riga. From the day her father threw her into the Baltic Sea as a
young girl, Livia’s sport was swimming. She won her first major breaststroke medal at 12, and,
after a long hiatus, swam competitively as a Master swimmer. Despite increasingly arthritic
hands, she medaled in international meets over a 15-year period. At the World Masters
Competition in Melbourne, Australia, in 2002 she set three World Master Games records in the
80-84 age group. Livia swam and medaled for the last time at the American Masters
Competition in 2016 – at the age of 94.

A linguist, Livia spoke German, English, French and Russian fluently with working knowledge
of Latvian and Polish. Family, Friends, and Gardening were her main interests. As a member
of the Horticultural Society, she celebrated her 90th birthday in her beloved Seattle Arboretum
in 2012.

Music was another lifetime passion. Her love for Opera began in her childhood when she and
her best friend Ulla would attend the opera in Riga, but could only afford “standing” tickets in
the back of the Opera house. Up to the age of 96 she enjoyed opera in Seattle in the company
of her granddaughters, Alison and Emily.

Livia found joy everywhere she went, she was a person with incredible energy who lived for
the moment and was always ready for the next adventure. She maintained lifelong
connections with friends and made countless new ones wherever she landed.

How do you say a final goodbye to a woman like Livia Walker?
For those of us who knew and loved her that is a question to which each one of us will have to
find his or her own answer.
One thing is sure, however, none of us will ever forget her: not her family, not her many circles
of friends. And one day we will all gather to remember this amazing person. And, yes, there
will be ice-cold vodka and pickled herring!