Tanja Kushewa Schlaile
courtesy photo
Tanja Schlaile
LITTLETON, COLORADO — Tanja Kushewa Schlaile, 88, of Polson, passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015, at Littleton Adventist Hospital in Littleton, Colorado. She was born Jan. 16, 1926, in Belarus (White Russia), the youngest of three sisters.
Tanja grew up in an eight-house village in Belarus until the age of 17 when she was taken by the Germans into Germany during World War II. She is a survivor of both Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. She met her husband Erich G. Schlaile in Garmisch, Germany, and they married on Nov. 13, 1948. Their marriage lasted over 61 years. They moved to New York until Erich was discharged from the military in 1949.
After that time, Tanja lived in Randallstown and Edgewod, Maryland, as well as a year in Oklahoma until moving to Pasadena, Texas, in 1959.
Tanja was a member of the Church of Christ. She loved her church family in Maryland, Texas, and Montana. She was a homemaker and later worked as a part-time waitress and in a bridal shop for several years in Pasadena.
For 22 years following the children leaving home, Erich and Tanja traveled from Texas to Maryland to care for the family fruit orchard from March until the harvest was finished in the fall. While in Maryland Tanja also worked in a floral shop arranging the flowers she loved so much. When the couple finally retired, they stayed in Texas full-time and then later moved to Polson, in 2003.
Tanja’s joy in life was her family—especially her grandchildren and great-grandson Tyler, her “little sunshine.” She loved gardening, cooking, baking and playing games with family and friends.
Tanja is preceded in death by her parents; two sisters; and her beloved husband.
Tanja’s three children: Tim Schlaile and his wife Patricia of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Tanja Abraham and her husband Roger of Littleton, Colorado, and Tina Schlaile of Polson and Santa Rosa, California survive her. Her three grandchildren: Natasha McClay and her husband Robert and their son Tyler of Littleton, Colorado, Corrina and Serena Schlaile of San Francisco, California.
Tanja’s memorial service will held on March 21, 2015, at 10 a.m. at the Mission Valley Church of Christ in Polson.
