On February 19, 2019 Lydia Thomas, loving wife and Mother of 3, passed away in Austin, TX at the age of 95, holding her daughter's hand. Lydia was born in Saporoahje, Ukraine July 29, 1923. When she grew up she attended University for one year. But Soldiers were moving in and her father refused to be a communist, so when she was 18 or 19, she fled with her family, first to Poland for a year and then on to Germany. To support her family she worked at the Erding air base doing office work and as an interpreter, which was at that time a Luftwaffe Training airfield. Her father's parents were from Sweden so Lydia looked more Swedish and spoke such fluent German ( the only one in her family that did) that they never suspected she was Ukraine. She lived with a German family and her family lived elsewhere. She had her family living at a different location. In 1945 the U.S. air force sized Erding. She then met and married Peter Thomas, who was stationed there as an American Air force soldier during World War II. Her beautiful wedding dress was sewn out of a white silk parachute and they had to be married twice, once by Germany and once by American Air Force. When Peter was honorably discharged from the Military, they took a ship to America together and the journey lasted weeks. Lydia was very sea sick the whole time. Peter couldn't stop eating. They stopped in New York and then Chicago and Lydia couldn't believe you could actually just buy anything you wanted in the stores. Peter bought her a fancy pair of shoes. They were intended to end their destination in Japan for Peter to work a civilian Military job, but stopped in Marshfield, Wisconsin to see Peter's Father and his father begged them not to leave and they never left. The first 5 years of their marriage they spoke their one common language which was German, until Lydia taught herself to speak English. They brought Lydia's parents to America and they lived in the Ukraine village of Chicago. Lydia studied and took her citizen test and became an American citizen in 1951. She was often quoted as saying there is no better place then America. She just said again a week before her death. Lydia wanted to get a job right away when arriving at Marshfield, and her first job was at a shoe factory sewing shoes for piece work and getting paid per shoe. She was known for being very fast at sewing and worked right till the birth of her first child, a son, 7 years later. After the birth of 2 more children, another son and a daughter, and them starting school, she starting working at Shopko department stores and worked there as head of her Domestics department for 18 years until her retirement. During retirement her and Peter loved to travel and made it to every State, some more than once. In the last year of her of her life she moved to Austin, TX to live near her daughter. Lydia was a feisty, loving survivor who will be missed. She was preceded in death by husband Peter, her sons Dennis and Ricky, her parents Paulina and Vasili, her sister Nina and brother Viktor. She is survived by her daughter Sandra, son-in-law Alex, daughter-in-law Gwen, grandchildren Ryan, Dana, Samantha and Jonah and 7 great grandchildren. Following her wishes, Lydia will be cremated.