Erika Beatrice Makino, aged 96, passed away peacefully at her home in Redwood Valley, California on February 7, 2025. The cause was respiratory failure.

She was an adventurous person, fascinated by other cultures, languages, and perspectives. A quiet woman with a strong spirit, she always followed her own path.

Erika was born on July 24, 1928 in Reinach, Switzerland, near Basel, to Marguerite (Stehle) and Emil Koenig, a newspaper editor. She had two older siblings, Walter and Rita.

She was 11 when World War II broke out in Europe in 1939. Since Basel is right on the border with Germany and France, one could see tracer fire between Germany and France and hear bombers flying overhead.

One day Erika’s mother bought backpacks in case the family had to flee into the Alps. While the others were deeply worried, it seemed to Erika that adventurous and exciting times were ahead.

Finally the war ended, but food was still rationed for some time. Each member of Erika’s family had a small cloth bag holding their portion of bread for the day, which her mother weighed out on a scale.

Erika attended the University of Basel, majoring in German literature with a minor in history. She focused on Europe in the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. She once said, “It was a bridge to a new age like we are living in now.”

Teaching was one of the few acceptable career paths for women at that time. Not wanting to teach a large classroom of unruly children, Erika decided to go into special education.

But she felt constrained by the narrowness of life in Switzerland. So at 29, she decided to move to the United States, a big country with big possibilities.

Facing a two-year wait for a visa, she headed to Peru, traveling there by freighter. She worked as an au pair and later as a translator at the Swiss embassy in Lima.

Finally, Erika’s US visa came through. Instead of simply flying to the US, she decided to make the trip overland. The journey by bus, small plane and boat down the Amazon River took her three months.

In 1959, she arrived in the US and decided to move to San Francisco. On the day she had just one dollar left in her purse, she was offered a job at a school for intellectually disabled children.

A few years later, she earned a Master’s degree in German at UCLA. There she met and married Motoji Makino, a Japanese doctoral student in nuclear physics at the University of Southern California.

They moved to Claremont, California and then to Santa Monica to raise their three daughters, Annette, Yoshi and Yuri.

In 1971, the family spent five months in Takasaki, Japan, first living with Motoji’s parents in their traditional Japanese home. On their return to the States, the family lived in the Santa Barbara area while Motoji did post-doctoral research at UCSB.

Erika got involved with the women’s movement, forming some lifelong friendships. But the marriage did not survive, and Erika and Motoji divorced.

After Erika’s father died in 1976, she and her daughters moved to Switzerland for a year to spend time with Erika’s mother.

Erika always had a dream of living in the country. On the family’s return to the US, she bought three acres in rural Redwood Valley, near Ukiah in Northern California.

In the spring of 1979, the family moved into their newly built A-frame on a hillside covered with manzanita and madrone trees.

Erika pursued a variety of creative interests, including writing short stories. These often focused on the subtleties of relationships and inner landscapes. In 1993 she self-published a collection called Six of Cups: A Circle of Stories.

Erika loved visiting new places. In her 60s she traveled solo through North Africa by bus, making friends and receiving several marriage proposals. Then she spent several months in Ghana, in West Africa, teaching French.

Later she spent some months living and writing in Antigua, Guatemala, and likewise in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

At 80 she spent a few weeks walking the Way of St. James, a medieval pilgrimage route in Northwestern Spain. She went by herself, wearing a small backpack and gray Crocs.

Around 1997, Erika moved to Arcata, California to help with Annette’s two children, Maya and Gabriel. While there, she was active with the Arcata Zen Group.

In her early 70s she acquired two llamas and trained them to carry packs so she could still go on overnight hiking trips.

Erika moved back to her house in Redwood Valley in 2008. There she developed a passion for making semi-abstract sculptures of people and animals, working in clay and cement. She had a final show of her work in Ukiah at age 88.

When she was 90, she unexpectedly received a generous bequest from her college boyfriend. She was able to build a small art studio, realizing a long-held dream.

Erika was able to live out her final years at home thanks to her daughters, especially Yoshi, her main caregiver.

Through her life Erika always felt comfortable with people from “different realities.” Beyond her professional work, this gift of perceiving other energies allowed her to see past surfaces to understand, accept and appreciate everyone fortunate enough to know her.

Having lived a long and rich life, she said she was not afraid to die; she felt that death would be “like taking off a heavy backpack—and then you’re free!”

Clearly, she does not need a backpack for this next adventure.

Erika is survived by her daughters Annette Makino (Paul W. Blank) of Arcata, Yoshi Makino of Redwood Valley, and Yuri Makino of Tucson, Arizona; her grandchildren Maya, Gabriel, and Enakai; and her niece Karin Franz.

A celebration of Erika’s life will be held at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah on Sunday, June 29 at 1 p.m. Donations in Erika’s memory can be made to Plowshares Peace and Justice Center in Ukiah.

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For a much fuller account of Erika’s life and more photos, see An Adventurous Spirit - Erika Makino’s Life Story