Eva Maria Schwarz

Eva-Maria Schwarz passed away peacefully at her home surrounded by her family on June 13. She was born in Breslau (Wroclaw) Germany and has lived in Florida since 1969. She was known for her beauty inside and out and touched many people through her kindness and passion for volunteering and improving her community.

Eva-Maria is the widow of Dr. George Carl Schwarz who was a child psychiatrist who passed away in 2015. Together they built a long standing family practice to help adolescents and families in north Florida. She worked tirelessly with a gracious smile and caring demeanor for many years to provide comfort and support to their patients. She always had a way to make people feel at ease.

She was a well-loved fixture at many local elementary schools where she frequently visited to give talks about nature and the importance of preserving our local waterways and native plants. She was also a volunteer for the Stewards of the St. John’s River and organized many river cleaning events, leading the charge with her waders and canoe. She and her husband helped to establish Mandarin Park with Tommy Hazori Sr. She maintained a large butterfly garden that attracted thousands of Monarch butterflies over the years to the Mandarin neighborhood, nursing caterpillars in her home to ensure a healthy population. She inspired many local friends to begin their own pollinator and pesticide free gardens.

Eva-Maria was a competitive gardener who won many first prize awards and the Queen of the Show in her first attempt at submitting a rose. She frequently donated floral arrangements to community events and gifted her rose arrangements to many friends‘ weddings.

She adored playing and beating her children and grandchildren at chess and poker. She was a lifelong learner who always sought out new challenges including photography, horse back riding, jewelry making, mahjong, financial investing and mental health and science research. She encouraged her children to also be life long learners and travelers.

Eva-Maria was an avid reader and loved poetry, painting and sculpture. She loved to dance and could sing hundreds of songs from memory ranging from Elvis Presley to Schubert to Mozart. She was a world traveler who visited all the continents and lived in four. She was also a gym and exercise enthusiast. She was a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

If there is one thing that she will always be remembered by it is the fact that she never lived a year without a pet dog (or more!) even as a refugee fleeing the Russians in WWII. She frequently spoke of King Frederick the Great and how he was buried with his dogs at Sansoucci Palace. She turned this life long love of dogs into pet therapy for children and volunteered for many years in the Hadlow Community Hospice on Sunbeam Road.

Eva-Maria raised seven children. She is pre-deceased by Eric Joseph Schwarz, who lives in our hearts and minds forever. Her surviving children include Andreas Michael Schwarz, Audrey-Maria Cengotitabengoa Schwarz, Chris Schwarz, Erica Rubio Schwarz, Elise Sheppard Schwarz, and Peter Schwarz. She has 9 grandchildren: Emily, Jaden, Kyle, Lena, Logan, Martin, Samantha, Sander, and Sawyer. She loved her family and grandchildren immensely and cherished her time with them. She will be greatly missed and always loved.