Elisabeth Lea Comploi

Lea claimed her heritage stemmed from the beautiful city of Pyatigorsk, Russia (translated from Russian as Five Mountains). She was born to Alex (a harvester) and Eugenia Suchow in the district of Rava Ruska, Poland. She was given the name of Elisabeth and baptised into the Roman Catholic church on March 12, 1931. Elisabeth never got to know her birth mother as Eugenia was confined to a TB hospital and children were not allowed to visit the patients in those days. Elisabeth's mother died when Lea was four and a half years old. Her father remarried but further tragedy struck the family several years later when Lea's father and older brother (four years her senior) were killed during WWII, leaving Lea and her step-mother to fend for themselves. Lea said they suffered many hardships during her childhood days.

Elisabeth began her adult life at the early age of seventeen when she married Manfred Joseph Platzer, a textile worker, in Feldkirch, Austria on April 19, 1948. They began their family first with a son, Heinz Gunther, and two years later, a daughter, Sonja Agathe. Manfred and Elisabeth's marriage ended in divorce on December 14, 1951. In the summer of 1953, at the invitation of a war-time friend who offered to sponsor her, Lea boarded a boat and immigrated to Canada. On December 19 of that same year, Lea married Henry Comploi in Toronto, Canada. On her 27th birthday, November 5, 1957, Elisabeth Comploi was granted Canadian citizenship. Little is known about Lea's life as a Canadian except that she worked in Banking. From Canada Lea made her way to Los Angeles, California, becoming a USA citizen on June 28, 1984. Records indicate that Lea was employed by the Chevron Oil Company from 1971 to 1990.

After her retirement from Chevron, Lea settled in the northern community of Paradise, California, where she spent many happy years. Lea enjoyed travelling throughout Canada, the US, Mexico and Europe both with friends and solo to visit her family in Austria. She was an avid reader of everything from health to history; and, she kept a file labelled "good jokes"! Elisabeth kept abreast of local and world events by reading the daily newspapers from cover to cover. She became a champion Pool Player, and in later years enjoyed challenging others in pool and in "Bean Bag Baseball". The Camp Fire of 2018 that burned much of the town of Paradise put an end to the years of happiness Lea enjoyed there. Suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, Lea spent the next six years, moving from one Care Home to another in search of the happiness she'd once known in that community. She kept in touch with several long time friends and made many new friends along her journey, until passing peacefully to her rest four days after her 94th birthday.

Lea is survived by her son, Heinz, and her daughter, Sonja, and their families, all of whom live in Austria and include five grandchildren: Alex, Walter, Werner, Ronald, and Tanja. She is also survived by nine great grandchildren: Jennifer, Pascal, Larissa, Lea, Lillian, Denise, Livia, Alina and Elias. She leaves behind many dear friends who will continue to remember her for her kindness and willingness to be helpful in any way she could. Though she shared little about the pain in her life, Lea touched the hearts of many and will also be remembered for her tenacious spirit, her high values and her delightful humor. She fought a good fight! May she now rest in peace in her beloved town of Paradise, California.