MARIA Z. ENGEL

ENGEL, MARIA Z. Maria Engel was lucky to have lived two full, and vastly different, lives. Born Maria Zolotar in Russia shortly before the October Revolution, she lived until her first retirement in the USSR. As a teenager she dreamt of traveling to other countries, so she enrolled at the Odessa College for Foreign Languages to study English. However, traveling abroad was not possible for ordinary Soviet people. This is how Maria came to be an English teacher. Her life was soon interrupted by the Second World War, during which Maria and her family escaped Nazi atrocities, relocating from Odessa, which became occupied by Nazis only a few weeks after the family fled, to Kazakhstan. Maria lost her mother, Clara Rosenberg, and her husband, Nikolai Loginov, during the war. In 1971, at age 55, Maria finished her working career as a teacher, earning the maximum possible pension, and was ready to enjoy retirement. But soon after, emigration from the USSR became possible for Jewish citizens. It was like a miracle. No country in the world guarded its borders better than Russia, and this included preventing those inside from going abroad. Not able to resist the temptation of freedom, without a moment hesitation Maria left everything: her homeland, an apartment in the center of Riga, her pension, and life as she knew it, and emigrated to Israel in 1973. There she met her second husband, Israel Engel from New York, who intended to spend his retirement in Israel. Maria was full of energy and ambition, but the state of Israel, she found, had little to offer her. At Maria's insistence, they set off for the United States, and that was the beginning of her second life. At the time, in the mid-1970s, America was in a period of recession, so Maria and Israel opted to go to Houston, Texas, which was in the midst of oil boom. That also happened to be the time NASA's Apollo-Soyuz mission (involving the partnership of American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts) was in the works. Somebody told Maria about the project, for which a team of translators and interpreters was being assembled. When Israel called to inquire, they told him, "Bring your wife here!" For those who never lived in Russia, it would be difficult to understand how Maria felt. It was nothing short of a Cinderella story. In Russia, everything related to space exploration was top secret and off limits to ordinary Soviet citizens. And yet here she was, talking to astronauts, trying on space suits and learning about the internals of a spacecraft. After the mission was completed, Maria was one of four translators kept on to work for NASA, in the capacity of technical editor, which she did until her second retirement at age 65. She was very proud to have earned her own Social Security benefits. In 1984, Maria and Israel joined her son here in San Diego, where they both enjoyed spending plenty of time over the years with her grandchildren. As the situation in Russia deteriorated in the late 1980s, everybody who found a way to do so left the country. During that period, Maria and Israel worked with Jewish Family Services, helping several families relocate to San Diego. Maria developed an interest in real estate, and in her retirement bought and sold several houses in Houston and San Diego. She got a driver's license. They made several trips to Europe. Indeed, it was a second, and very different life. During her final two years, Maria struggled with heart disease. Despite progressing congenital heart failure, she remained a strong and independent person until her final days. On December 6th, at 12:11 p.m., Maria passed away at the age of 94, peacefully in her home, to the sadness of many who loved her. Maria is survived by her son, Boris, and her grandchildren Clara, 25, (and husband Luke) and Michael, 19. She was pre-deceased by her husband Israel Engel in 1995.