Zaiga Phillips was 9 years old when she and her family left Latvia in 1944. Fleeing Soviet occupation during World War II, more than 40 years would pass before she would set foot in her home country again. “When I left Latvia it all happened so quickly. I was told to take a few belongings. So I packed some clothes and hid a chicken my
relative had given to me in the pocket of my coat. I did not know whether I would return, so I wanted to take the chicken to remember my relative,” says Zaiga. “The chicken survived the crossing of the Baltic Sea, but did not live long after that.”
Zaiga, along with her mother Alma, father Aldolfs, brother Janis and grandmother Maija, left their hometown of Ape, Latvia, via a tortuous route. They traveled mostly by night amongst bombings and shootings. They hid in the hay on horse-drawn wagons, rode in train cars with animals and finally crossed the sea. “I remember getting in a boat and arriving in Danzig, Germany. We then kept traveling and settled
in the German town of Pocking, Bavaria. We eventually ended up in a displaced persons’ camp in Munich,” describes Zaiga. “At first our family lived in a
room that housed 30 people, but luckily we soon moved to a small room for only our family.” Run by the International Refugee Organization, Zaiga says the camp was quite interesting with varied nationalities present. “Since my family was Latvian, we lived in a part of the camp designated for people from my country,” explains Zaiga. “We had schools, a hospital, Boy and Girl Scouts, music lessons and ballet—everything a little girl could ask for. Plus, my father served as the camp’s group leader for the Latvian people and was able to work in his trained field as a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine in Munich.”
While living in the camp, the family worked on finding a sponsor. “We lived in
a displaced persons’ camp because we didn’t have any place to call home. So it was
up to us to choose another country where we wanted to live and then find a sponsor within that country who would agree to provide shelter and help assimilate us to living there,” says Zaiga. Many countries in Europe, Australia, South America and the United States were opening their doors to displaced people. “Luckily, our family had good friends already living in the United States and they worked with Luth-eran World Relief to help us find our sponsor, Dr. Todd,” says Zaiga. “He was a veterinarian living in Lakewood, Washington. The Lutheran World Federation paid for our travel to the United States. The costs
were repaid while working for Dr. Todd, who provided our living quarters.” Zaiga and her family began their voyage to America in 1949 first by taking a boat from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York. Zaiga was 14 years old. After traveling for a week on the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the family arrived
in New York City. From there they changed boats, went to New Orleans and then began their final trek to Lakewood.
Once the family arrived in Lakewood, Zaiga’s father went to work for Dr. Todd as his assistant. While her father was working, Zaiga began her freshman year at Clover Park High School. “It was very important to my father that he pay back all the money to the Lutheran World Federation that they spent on bringing
us to America,” says Zaiga. “So we scrimped, saved and paid them back in only a year’s time.” In 1950, the family bought a house in the small community of Mossyrock, Washington, and Zaiga’s father opened his own veterinary office. “My father enjoyed working with Dr. Todd, but was very happy to have his own office,” says Zaiga. “He allowed me to assist him with surgeries and in the day-to-day care of the animals. These experiences made me appreciate medicine.” Two years later, Zaiga graduated from Mossyrock High School and that fall began her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington. Three years later she was accepted into the University of Washington School of Medicine. “My father didn’t want me to study veterinarian medicine, but he thought becoming a doctor to help humans was a great idea,” says Zaiga.
During her residency year at
Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Zaiga made the decision to specialize in pediatrics. “I love children,” says Zaiga. “It is very satisfying for me to help them when they are not feeling well or have more serious medical issues to deal with.”
After graduating from medical school, Zaiga got married and moved with her husband first to
Colorado and then to Texas, so he could pursue additional medical training in psychiatry. During this time, the couple added son Bert and daughters Lisa and Sintija to their family. In 1969, the family moved back to Washington State and settled in Bellevue. Three years later, the couple divorced and Zaiga went to work
for the Bellevue School District as
a school physician to support her family. Five years later, she joined Pediatric Associates in Bellevue. “It was quite a big deal when
I started at Pediatric Associates because I was the first woman to join the group,” says Zaiga. “They must have liked me
because 28 years later I am still there. Being
a pediatrician is great fun for me because I get to play with children all day.” Aside from playing, Zaiga also loves the constant challenges found in medicine. “I am always learning something new and I love taking new knowledge and passing it along to my patients and their families,” says Zaiga.
Over the years Zaiga has noticed both good and bad changes in the field of pediatrics. “I love that fathers are much more involved in their children’s lives these days. When they come
to my office they are fully aware of their children’s medical histories and what needs to be done,” says Zaiga. “Thirty years ago that wasn’t the case. Fathers didn’t have a clue. They always had to call their wife
to find out the information they needed.” Another improvement has been the discovery of so many vaccinations. Diseases that used to kill children or make them very ill are now managed with immunizations. Zaiga also agrees
that the ability to diagnose different medical problems in children has improved dramatically over the years. One area that manifests crippling affects on children today is obesity. “I see it every day in my office and it is so sad because it can be avoided,” says Zaiga. “Children are spending too much time in front of the computer or watching TV and not getting the physical exercise they need. Plus, they are eating poorly. You add all those things up and it is the recipe for a child with long-term medical problems and disabilities.”
Always driven to improve her medical knowledge, in 1982 Zaiga went with a group of American physicians to China to see how the Chinese practice medicine. “I found the area of acupuncture to be particularly interesting,” says Zaiga. “Thanks to advances in medicine, as well as incorporating modern medicine, so many positive results have been made in the lives of people both in China and throughout the world.” But despite all her success as a doctor, one thing that Zaiga had been unable to do was return to her home country. Over the years, her mother had kept in contact with
several family
members and would often send them packages. But no one in the family had seen each other since 1944! This all changed in 1987 when Zaiga felt the communist hold of Latvia had weakened and she decided it was time to go for a visit. So she, along with her father and two daughters made the long voyage back.
First, they flew to Helsinki,
Finland, and then took a ferry to Estonia. Once in Estonia they took a bus to the city of Riga, Latvia. “When we arrived in Riga on a drab rainy day there were several family members waiting for us with large bouquets of flowers. It was quite emotional for all of us because so much time had gone by since we had last seen one another,” says Zaiga. “My father’s sister Marta, who had glaucoma and hadn’t seen her brother in 50 years, came to the gathering. Because she could no longer see clearly, she touched his head and noticed he didn’t have much hair left. She told him he had turned into an old man while he had been away in America. My father just laughed and hugged his sister, grateful to see her again.”
While Latvia may have been allowing more visitors to enter its borders, Zaiga says, “Once we were there, they watched our every move. While in Riga we were allowed to stay in only one hotel designated by the government. I know our hotel rooms were bugged to make sure we didn’t step out of line. We were not allowed to travel outside the city’s borders, so we could not return to my hometown of Ape. However, it was a bittersweet return for me and my father.”
Two years later, Zaiga again returned to attend the first Latvian Physicians Medical Congress and presented a lecture. While there she had the chance to talk with other Latvian doctors and discuss the medical needs of the people. “By this time the country was free of communism, but medical supplies were in short supply,” says Zaiga. “I returned to the United States determined to try and help the people of Latvia any way I could.” Upon her return to Bellevue, she found out about a volunteer organization called Healing the Children (www.healingthechildren.org). With
chapters based all over the country, Zaiga contacted the Washington chapter in Everett. Healing the Children provides donated medical, surgical and dental care both in the United States and around the world, to improve the health of needy children who would otherwise suffer or die “This organization puts together medical teams of surgeons and nurses who pay their own expenses and help obtain medical equipment and supplies to travel abroad and perform donated on-site surgeries,” says Zaiga. “In addition, they train with the local medical community and screen children that will need
to come to the United States for more extensive surgery.”
Knowing this could be one way she could help the people of Latvia, Zaiga volunteered her time and services, and in 1992 made her first trip to her home country with a medical team from Healing the Children. While there, the team successfully completed surgeries on 150 children, distributed medical supplies and screened many children to see
if their conditions warranted a trip to America. “The team determined that three children needed more extensive surgery than what we could provide in their home country,” says Zaiga. “An 11-year-old girl named Rita had severe scoliosis; Kristaps, a 2-year-old boy, needed surgery to repair a deformed hand; and Lasma, an 11-year-old girl, needed surgery to repair congenital heart defects.”
These children were brought to the United States and underwent
surgeries to repair their conditions. Today, thanks to the efforts of Healing the Children, all three are in Latvia living happy, healthy lives. “I still keep in touch with Rita, Kristaps and Lasma and when I go back to Latvia I always make sure I spend some time with them,” says Zaiga. “It is so satisfying to see how well they are doing and that I was able to play a small role in their happiness.” Along with her trips abroad,
over the years Zaiga has also been involved with the Bellevue Sister Cities
Association (BSCA). The BSCA (www.geocities.com/bscanow/index.html) is a nonprofit organization of citizen diplomats who live in the Bellevue area and are dedicated to fostering understanding, appreciation and peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the world. The organization accomplishes its goals by creating and maintaining people-to-
people relationships in an effort to promote cooperation, cultural understanding, humanitarian aid and economic development at the local level.
In 1990, the BSCA began searching for a sister city in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. When Zaiga received word of their desire to do this she immediately began lobbying the organization to consider Latvia’s capital city, Liepaja. During part of the process, Zaiga went on an exploratory trip to Liepaja in 1991 with members of the BSCA. “Before any decision was made, the group wanted to go to all the cities that were applying for sisterhood,” says Zaiga. “They did this to see which city was the most viable for the honor and would best complement Bellevue.” In December 1991, the votes were cast and Liepaja was chosen
as a sister city of Bellevue. Since that time, Zaiga has been instrumental in developing relationships with other physicians in Liepaja and getting them the medical supplies they need. “I travel to Liepaja two or three times a year and while I am there I always consult with the local doctors and deliver donated medical supplies, books and journals,” says Zaiga.
In the last year, Zaiga’s assistance has branched out to include educational campaigns in Liepaja. “I work-ed with the City of Bellevue and a physician in Liepaja to start a bicycle-safety campaign. So far we have distributed 300 bicycle helmets to the people of Liepaja. I would like to distribute a lot more, but we first need people to donate more
helmets.” Since wearing a bicycle helmet
is foreign to most people in Liepaja, incentives have to be developed so people will wear helmets when they bike. Two ways they are encouraging people to wear their helmets is by giving away theater tickets or coupons for a free lunch.
One of the greatest achievements Zaiga realized for her work in Latvia came earlier this year when she garnered the President’s Award for her humanitarian efforts from Latvia president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga. “This was a very special award for me,” says Zaiga. “It gave me great satisfaction knowing I had helped my country and its people.
I would have done it without the award, but this was an extra special touch I wasn’t anticipating. “I may have left my country when I was a little girl, but my heart has always been with the people of Latvia. I am just happy I can continue to give something back to the country I love.”
