Erika Elizabete Akermanis Zeltins

Erika Elizabete Akermanis Zeltins passed away the evening before her 103rd birthday March 4, 2015.  Erika was born on a German manor in Tzarist Russian Latvia.  She received a Diploma in Dentistry from Riga University and practiced until 1944 when war forced her family to flee to Germany.  Sponsored by United Methodist Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan, the family came to the United States five years later.  Erika worked hard in a related field and raised two daughters, Anita Kaire and Zinta Smith, with her husband, Janis who passed away in 1987.  During her long and loving life she enjoyed travel, art museums, ballet, classical as well as popular music, reading fiction in three languages, movies, and news channels.  She grew lovely flowers and knit beautiful sweaters.  At age ninety Erika moved to Homestead Village Retirement Community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to be near her daughters’ families.   She leaves her daughters and their husbands, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.  A memorial service will be held in Kalamazoo at Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church at a later date.