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Helen Szablya was 22 when she escaped the Communist regime in her home country. She and her husband, John, snuck out of Hungary under the dark of night with their two toddlers and newborn in December 1956, about a month after a failed revolution.

She detailed her epic journey⁠—from Hungary to Austria, then Canada, Pullman, and beyond⁠—in a two-volume autobiography. Szablya (’76 For. Lang. and Lit., German) was a writer, mother of seven, and longtime Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Hungary for Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. She died at 90 in Seattle on October 21, 2024.

She was born in 1934 to … » More …