Lia was born in Tartu on 25th December 1925 and died in Ballarat, Australia on 2nd March 2024 aged 98.
Lia and her parents fled from Estonia in 1944 due to the impending Soviet reoccupation, eventually ending up in Geislingen DP Camp where Lia completed her secondary schooling. Four years later, Lia migrated to Australia. She worked her two years of compulsory employment at the Bonegilla Migrant Camp near Albury/Wodonga, sponsored her parents’ passage to Australia, then met and married Zigurds Plavina who was also working at Bonegilla.
They settled in Ballarat, Victoria, built a home and raised two children.
It was almost 50 years before Lia returned to Estonia to try to trace her family and fill in the many gaps in her memories of life there as a child and teenager.
Lia was a strong and determined person, a proud Estonian, and fiercely independent. She remained in her original family home all her life and died there of “old age”.
She will be dearly missed by her two children -Mara and Peter, three grandchildren -Julia, Andrew and Mark, and three great grandchildren -Leila, Leo and Oliver.
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