Washington - Liesel Gerda Al-Haddad (née Umbach) was able to let go of this world and fell asleep peacefully in the evening on Wednesday, October 6th, 2021, in Maltby, near her home in Bothell, Washington.

Liesel was born in Gudensberg, Hessen, Germany in 1938, the daughter of Jakob and Elisabeth Umbach. She was the second of their two children, after her brother Hans born in 1927. Her father was a carpenter drafted into the German Army in April 1940 and released from US captivity in July 1945. Her brother was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943 at the age of 16, so that Liesel grew up without a father-figure until she was 7 years old. As a small child, she had to stand for survival by her mother's side. These were difficult times full of deprivation and nights of bombing in the bunker. This time certainly shaped her life.

Liesel was known to be a precocious and somewhat mischievous youth. She challenged her teachers when she did not believe them to be correct, and pranked them when she felt an injustice had been made. One time she covered her teacher's chair with chalk so that his black coat would be covered in white! She was very popular and stayed in contact with her childhood friends her whole life.

After school she took an apprenticeship as a retail clerk in a fine shoe store in the nearby city of Kassel. Liesel was curious about life, fun-loving and open to discovering new things, and wanted to experience more of life than the small town of Gudensberg. You could say that Liesel was ahead of her time and didn't fit into the "tightness" of the 50s in Germany. In 1958 she gave birth to her son Thomas. She had answered the call of life.

After working in the shoe shop, Liesel began working as a German civilian employee at the nearby US Air Force Base in Kassel Rothwesten as a saleswoman. There Liesel met master sergeant Thomas John Foley, whom she married. They parted ways and Liesel emigrated to the USA in 1965 with their son Patrick James, who had been born in 1962.

After a time in New Jersey, Liesel drove with little Patrick across the country in her VW Beetle to sunnier and less humid Sacramento, California. There she took business classes at the local college, and that is where she met the love of her life: her husband of 53 years, Sabah Nasir Al-Haddad.

He says he saw Liesel from across the class auditiorium, a stand-out student always poised and smartly dressed. He followed her to her car, convinced her to roll down her window a little, and asked if she would share notes with a foreign student. She replied that she was one, too! The window rolled down a little further, and Sabah asked her to tea. Liesel agreed to join him right then at a nearby fancy bowling alley. On a quiet weekday afternoon in the near empty bowling alley, they had their tea, had a bite to eat, and then danced and danced and danced.

Liesel and Sabah were married in 1968 and later that year their daughter Mona Sabrina was born. Due to Sabah's management position with F.W. Woolworth, Liesel moved with him, Mona, and Pat through Eugene, Medford, and Klamath Falls, Oregon, until they settled in Kirkland and later Bothell, Washington, outside of Seattle.

Following her mother's example, Liesel was one of the most capable, determined, hard-working people you could ever meet, a true Super Woman. Liesel ran a business for 26 years alongside Sabah in University Village, served as president of her parish's women's guild, volunteered in the community with her Rotarian husband, gave her time as an art docent at her children's schools, and never missed her local kids' and grandkids' events. She worked hard to maintain cherished family bonds with loved ones still in Germany.

Liesel was multi-lingual, super resourceful, sharp as a tack, and easily elegant. She was well-liked and well-rounded, the kind of person you wanted at your party because she would get your jokes, make her own sly ones, and add intelligently to the conversation from politics to culture. She loved being in nature, whether in the mountains or by the ocean, could ski for hours, and would walk for miles...

There's so much more to know about Liesel. Part of her soul and mind was simultaneously in her adopted home country while another part was in her original homeland. Her spirit was made of fire and perseverance. In short, she was an amazing woman...

Heaven will be more lively with Liesel joining her parents and her brother Hans. On earth, Liesel's presence is ensured by her husband Sabah, her sons Thomas Umbach, Patrick Foley and their daughter Mona Al-Haddad, her daughter-in-law Petra Umbach and her son-in-law Marc Sellier, as well as her grandchildren who knew her as "Omi": Christian Umbach, Morgen Sellier, and Maya Sellier.

A Celebration of Life memorial will be planned to honor Liesel on a later date.

In the meantime, we invite you to please join us to pray at a funeral mass on

Friday, January 14 at 11:00a:

at St. Brendan's Catholic Church

10051 NE 195th St., in Bothell.

Please come symptom-free and wearing a mask.

The funeral mass will stream online at facebook.com/stbrendancatholicbothell

Your prayers, whether with us or from afar, are appreciated.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a charitable donation in Liesel's memory to

Catholic Community Services/Catholic Housing Services of Washington (ccsww.org) or

St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle/King County (svdpseattle.org).

Liesel would have liked helping those in need in our community.

Liesel will be interred at Calvary Cemetery, Seattle.

As a final greeting from Liesel's old homeland, a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff:

It was like heaven had

Kissed the earth silently,

That she had to dream of the sky

In shimmers of flowers.

The air went through the fields

The ears of wheat swayed gently,

The woods rustled softly,

The night was so clear.

And my soul spread

Wide her wings,

Flew through the silent lands

As if she was flying home