Lucia Marietta Toth Radzai

In lieu of flowers, my mother would be so pleased for you to donate to Savannah Esqueda’s cancer treatments. Savannah is a child and the granddaughter of Betty & Joachim Krause. My mother was friends with Betty’s parents and has known Betty since she was a small child. You can donate through GoFundme.com and type in Savannah Esqueda. The website will show “Leandro & Savannah’s Medical Expenses” or you can send a check to Leandro Esqueda, c/o Jackie Esqueda at 312 Ballet Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89107. My mother’s highest priority was family. Although speaking about her is the main theme, it is impossible to get a picture of her life without including the events and circumstances that involved her family and shaped her life. My mother, Lucia Marietta Rubel was born on July 9, 1922 in Vienna, Austria, while her parents were on vacation. She lived for the first five years of her life in Zurich, Switzerland after which they moved to Budapest, Hungary to be closer to her grandmother and the rest of the family. Her first language was German and Hungarian. Prior to World War II it became politically dangerous to have a Russian last name; therefore, the family name was changed to Rekai, which is more typically Hungarian. In 1938 at the age of 16 she met my father, Laszlo Toth in Budapest, Hungary. My father was from a poorer family. His father had died during World War I. A Jewish family, who were tailors, helped my father’s mother and the children, by providing them with a green grocery stand in the local market. My father and his siblings went to better schools being considered war orphans and my father learned to be an electrician as a trade, but his siblings and him also learned gymnastics. His older brother joined the circus and later on so did my father. My father met Franz Czeisler (Tihany) in the circus a couple of years before my father and mother met. Franz Czeisler told me many times that my mother was a beauty, when she was young. My mother was also very athletic as a swimmer and ice skater. She told me that the boys she knew growing up loved to skate with her, because she was such a strong skater. Her father, Alfred Rekai died during World War II. He was taken to a concentration camp, but it could not be traced that he ever arrived there. My mother, as most little girls, idolized her father. Her mother, Elizabeth Rekai, immigrated to Canada after World War II with her 14- year younger brother, Andras Rekai. Her mother later married Dell Carson. Her brother still resides in a suburb of Toronto, Canada with his wife, Agota Rekai. Their children, Angel Rose (Susie) and Judy, their children and the great grandchildren of Andras and Agota live in the same province, Ontario. Mummy was always very close to her sister-in-law, Agota, and all of her brother’s descendants. Although my mother was raised a Christian, there was Jewish heritage and so it was very difficult for her and her family during World War II. She was taken to a concentration camp, but a friend of the family helped her escape the same day. Papa hid her most of the war along with uncle Tibi, who was Jewish. Tibor Alexander was not related, but he worked with my father in the teeterboard act for many years. Papa was drafted into the army, which since they had overtaken Hungary was the Nazi army, but he was in the newspaper corp unit, where they put entertainers. He had uncle Tibi with him, which now seems strange that a Jew was with the army. He told me that they had to turn somersaults right on the spot to prove they were entertainers, whenever any Russian soldiers stopped them. At one point, my mother was with my grandmother, Julianna Toth in Budapest, when they came for my mother again to take her to a concentration camp. My grandmother pleaded with them not to take her, but they did. While driving, the bombs started dropping, and the soldiers ran away, leaving my mother behind. She even was hidden with my father and uncle Tibi at the front with the newspaper corps. My grandmother and uncle Andras were hidden in safe houses in Budapest. After the war was over, mummy, papa and uncle Tibi walked back to Budapest. They got the teeterboard troupe together and received a contract to work in Switzerland for Circus Knie. My mother became a circus performer. Papa said they were so skinny that when they first ate the delicious chocolates in Switzerland, they all got sick. Uncle Andras was sent to a school in Switzerland, where they were taking in war orphans. Although for a child it was difficult for uncle Andras to be away from family and mummy begged my father to keep him with them, my father felt that it was important for him to get an education. Uncle Andras became a designing electronic engineer and did very well in business with his own company eventually in Canada. After the war, when they were in Switzerland, the counter revolution occurred in Hungary. My grandmother, Elizabeth Rekai was visiting and outside of Hungary at this time. They all had no country to go back to. My grandmother emigrated to Canada with my uncle and my parents ended up working in England, did a command performance for the Queen and then were granted political asylum. They worked in England at the Palladium, where a picture was taken of my sister as a baby being held by Danny Kaye. They also worked at the Blackpool Tower Circus. Most of the circus kids in England at that time were born in Blackpool, where there was a longer contract to stay in one place. My sister, Susan, and I were both born there. My parents were friends of Betty Krause’s parents and were so impressed with their manners and education, that they sent us for three years to the same Catholic boarding school that Betty and her siblings attended in Bangor, North Wales. In 1955, my parents went to France and worked on Circus Pinder. My sister and I visited during the summer holidays. During the years in England, my parent also met Tony Fossett. Tony and Irene Fossett and Betty and Joachim Krause immigrated to America also and the families have been life-long friends. Mummy and papa eventually formed the Lacy Troupe, a rolling globe act. Doris Naghtin came to work in the act, when she was sixteen and stayed for sixteen years. Although she has called my mother, Auntie Lucy, she has considered her as close as her mother and has been a sister to me. In 1956 my parents came to America to work on Hamid Morton Circus. Also Shiela Sloan came to America with them in the act. She eventually married, Barry Sloan. Antar Abderrahman and his wife Beverly were on the Hamid Morton show too. I am not 100% sure, but I think that Antar knew my parents from England. Mummy and papa planned to return to England and we were still at the Catholic boarding school. When they signed a new contract for another year, they brought us to America with them. It was supposed to be just another year, but my parents ended up staying and eventually becoming residents and then American citizens. We went to Canada for a year and a half and attended school living with my uncle and grandmother and then toured with them across the United States, Canada and Mexico and started performing ourselves. When my sister and I married in 1968, mummy and papa formed a seal act. They performed for a few years and then went on Circus Vargas, where my mother became the road office manager handling the countdown for the concession and gate and paying the acts. My father became the electrician on the show. They stayed on Circus Vargas for many years during which they bought their first home in Sarasota, FL. This was a big dream for them both to finally have some roots even if they were in their fifties. They retired from Circus Vargas at least two times that I can remember. They just loved to travel. When they finally did retire in Sarasota, they enjoyed the long-time friends that lived there. The Fredonia’s and them would play cards and Tony Fossett would come over and fix things around the house that had become too difficult for my father to do. In 1990, my sister Susan Aviles-Martinez died of Aids leaving a new born child and her 18-year-old daughter, Julianna, behind. My parents took the child to Florida and raised him for seven years until his death. Julianna stayed in Las Vegas. This shows how strong a person my mother was to be able to raise a sick child with such love in her heart. My father died in 1996 leaving my mother to care for her grandson, Michael, until his death a year later. My mother joined a prayer group and bereavement group in Florida. She met Peter Radzai, who was mourning the loss of this wife. Two and a half years later they married, but he had cancer and died a couple of years later. In July of 2002 my mother bought a house here in Henderson to be closer to family. She sold the home in Florida and moved here. I lived here in Las Vegas as wells as her grandchildren, Julianna Aviles-Martinez and Christopher and Kip Hartzell and their families. She made many knew friends here including Barbara Gowan and her family, the Evans family, Heather White and Janet & Mat Bowcutt. Eventually she was unable to live alone, but was bored at my house with everyone working. My uncle and her decided to look at assisted living facilities. She ended up moving into Prestige Assisted Living at Mira Loma and had lived there for six years prior to her death. She was loved by other residents including the older gentleman. We laughed when we first saw her in the eating area surrounded by all gentlemen and just one other woman. She was so loving and knew how to make a man feel good with her flirting. There was one gentleman in there that at first his family objected to them holding hands until they realized it was a comfort to him to have someone care. The manager, Barbara, and All of the staff treated her with such love and patience as her dementia grew. I cannot say enough about how much I appreciate how they treated her both in the assisted living and memory unit. It was normal to see them hug her and kiss her. They joked her out of some of the agitation and paranoia of Dementia. In the end you all knew that she fell and broke her pelvis on June 3rd and it was a downhill spiral after that. She did get back to walking with the walker and was still very strong for her age of 94, but had no balance, which she did not realize with the dementia. There were many falls, which worsened her condition. After a couple of months of hospital’s and rehabs, she moved into the memory unit of the same assisted living and again I have nothing but praise for the staff in how they treated her with such love. My mother is survived by her daughter, Dena Hartzell, by her brother and his wife, Andras & Agota Rekai and their descendants including their daughters Judy and Angel Rose; by Doris Naghtin , her daughter in essence and her family; by her grandchildren, Julianna Aviles-Martinez and Kip and Christopher Hartzell; by Jeanette Hartzell, Christopher’s wife and Jeanette Hartzell’s family; by Shelley Gibson, Kip Hartzell’s partner and her family; by her grandson, Nathan Varnum Hartzell, Christopher’s son; by her grandchildren Ty, Symone & Lucia, Julianna’s children; by her granddaughter, Skylar Hartzell, Kip’s daughter; by her grandson, Seth Gibson-King, Shelly’s son; by her son-in-law’s brothers, Mickey Hartzell and Ross Hartzell and his wife Elisa and her family; by Ed Stillman, her cousin’s grandchild and his family; and by her many many friends. My father (Laszlo Toth), my sister (Susan Aviles-Martinez) and my nephew (Michael) are all buried side by side here at the Palms. It was my mother’s wishes to be buried here also. I truly believe that they are together now free of the pains of life and with the fulfillment of love of being with each other.