Ioana Razi

Ioana Razi, née Ioana Heliade Radulescu and known as Eggie, died peacefully on Monday, April 28, at her longtime home in Burleith, Washington, DC surrounded by family.  She was 98, two months shy of her 99th!

Born in Bucharest, Romania on June 28, 1926, she and her husband, Gerasimos (Maki) Michael Razi, fled Romania in 1947 and emigrated first to Paris and eventually to the United States in 1952, as political refugees from behind the Iron Curtain. After a couple of years in New York, they moved to DC and bought a house on R Street which remained their permanent residence through all their successive travels. They became US citizens in 1957. From 1963-1978, they spent 15 most wonderful years serving abroad as part of the Voice of America, the United States Information Agency, and the US State Department. Posts included Rabat, Morocco; Paris, France; Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Kinshasa, the DRC; N’Djamena, Chad; and Antananarivo, Madagascar. 

Vacations were spent in an ancestral home on the Greek island of Kefalonia and at their summer farmhouse in Brooksville, Maine. Paris was also a beloved stopping place during those years. Eggie’s sister, Josette Lazar, a Sunday New York Times editor, was always eager to host her beloved younger sister’s family in her small apartment under the arcade at the Palais Royal and welcome them into her circle of extraordinary friends. French letters and arts were a lifelong source of artistic and intellectual nourishment for Eggie.

Eggie remained curious and engaged in politics, literature, and the arts right to the end. She passionately loved this country and prayed for its wellbeing. Raised speaking Romanian, French, and English, Eggie studied linguistics at the Sorbonne and was an avid reader in all three languages. In her early years in DC, she worked as a VOA broadcaster and at Savile Book Shop in Georgetown, and later taught English as a second language at the family’s overseas posts. 

An amazing cook and gardener, Eggie had many passions including dachshunds, babies, bunnies, piglets, flowers,  gardens, books, and good conversations over many cups of tea at her dining room tables with family and beloved friends of all ages. Her house, crammed with books, family photographs, art pieces, and special treasures, reflected the many chapters of Eggie’s life and the breadth of her interests. 

Having left everything behind when she fled Romania at the age of 20, HOME mattered, and Eggie was masterful at creating a sense of home everywhere her family traveled and lived. Her devoted nurturing over 50 years of the family’s “Maine House” property, with its deep rosehip hedge, peach, apple and blueberry orchards, and flourishing gardens stands as a testament to that gift of hers. Creating a sense of beauty and permanence for her family amidst the Maine community that holds generations of beloved friends was a passion and mission of hers and is a key part of her legacy. 

Eggie touched everyone she met and no one ever forgot meeting her. She had a special enthusiasm for every person she got to know. She inspired all in her orbit with how she did both the little things and the big things. She had opinions about everything and was not afraid to speak them. Her opinion about things mattered mightily to all who knew her. Her ‘grande dame’ quality, her cool aesthetic and elegance, in her homes and in her person, was legendary. 

After the death of her husband in 1989, Eggie came into her own as family matriarch. She was the family’s…Queen! Born the same year as Queen Elizabeth, they shared similar timelines in their biographies, a devotion to teatimes, and an insistence that things be just so. Whereas in their younger years, her children found this trait for just so-ness not that enjoyable, as the years passed, they came to appreciate its merit and find cause for a smile. 

Raised with a deep love of her native Romania and pride in her lineage--17th century Wallachian Prince Matei Basarab on her mother’s side & 19th century Ion Heliade Radulescu on her father’s—Eggie was strikingly joyful when she had the opportunity to speak with other Romanians. With the passing of her husband and the dwindling number of old Romanian friends, the opportunity to speak Romanian in her last years came mostly with new young acquaintances. She and they would quickly find common ground, sharing pride in Romanian cultural luminaries, favorite dishes, and geographic landmarks. Her curiosity about their upbringing in the country she had left behind led her to tap into a well of wonderful memories. The new acquaintances, for their part, would inevitably have a moment of amazement when they realized this “Eggie” was the noble descendant of illustrious figures in their history books! 

When, in the last few years, Eggie became less able to work in her gardens and ‘do things’, she worried about being a burden. Her children and friends assured her that what they most valued was the time with her--her ability to listen and offer perspective, humor, wisdom, and guidance for their lives. We are so grateful for this last chapter.

An ever-devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Eggie is survived by a big and loving family:

• four children: John, Catherine, Ioana, and Maria; 

• seven grandchildren:  Alexander Razi (spouse: Kristi Razi); Andrea Razi-Thomas (spouse: Jen Razi-Thomas); Ben Razi (spouse: Candace Ourisman); Nadejda “Plum” Razi Robertson (partner: Josh Henderson) Anna “Ghigs” Razi Robertson (partner: Michael McGlone); Catherine “Lala” Dixon (spouse: Tristan Wilson) and Constantine Dixon; 

• eight great-grandchildren: Kepler Falzone, Luke Razi, Lincoln Razi, Cailin Razi-Thomas, Claire Razi-Thomas, Juniper Razi-McGlone, Grace Razi-McGlone, Etta Razi Wilson;

• Sara Razi, mother of great grandchildren Luke and Lincoln; 

• Cousins: Gheorghe Orasanu of Bucharest, Anca Burghele of Frankfurt, Andrei de Vincenz of Washington, DC

When recently asked for a catch-all phrase to encompass her life from Bucharest to this end moment in Washington DC, Eggie, with raised eyebrows, mused  on the magnitude of the question, and then, after a moment, said, simply: How lucky we have been! The family will engrave that onto a bench at her gravesite at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.  

In lieu of flowers, should you want to make a contribution in Eggie’s memory, the Sacred Monastery of Saint Sidonia (formerly known as the Sacred Monastery of Saint Nina), in Union Bridge, Maryland has been a second home and source of enormous support for Eggie, her daughter Ioana, and son, John, for over a decade. It is where her funeral was held. 

In closing, please see the two pieces below:

 (1) the superb and profound eulogy by Gerontissa Aemiliane. It is in the form of a letter to Eggie. Gerontissa, former abbess of the monastery, is overseas and could not attend the funeral in person, but her phone calls to Eggie and prayers, along with those of the other sisters, helped carry Eggie through her transition. The letter was read at Eggie’s funeral by Eggie’s goddaughter, Sister Chrysorimoni.

(2) A wonderful biographical article about Eggie written in 2022 by Burleith friend and neighbor Forrest Bachner.

http://www.burleith.org/whatsup/2022/2/28/focus-on-eggie-razi

GERONTISSA AEMILIANE’S LETTER/EULOGY TO EGGIE

“My beloved Eggie,

One and only, noble lady, inimitable and irreplaceable, our Matriarch!

I confess that I didn’t cry as hard at having to miss my beloved mother’s funeral, as I have at having to miss yours. 

Yet, what are my tears, beside all the tears of all the separations that you have endured, in almost 99 years - from your mother, Catherine, so young, from your homeland of holy Royal Romania, so young, from your father, Longine, just when you could have been reunited at long last, from your only sister Josette, and at the massive sudden shocking separation from Maki, “the force” - 

I would be remiss if I failed to mention my immense gratitude to my friend, John Dixon - and I’m sure you and he have it all sorted out up there right now, Eggie - who first connected me with Ioana in March, 1982, and who, after he died, distinctly assigned me to be hers and all your family’s, in Christ. 

And I’m grateful to him also for something that perhaps many of you know. Eggie told me once that the first time she got a diagnosis of almost certainly fatal cancer, statistically speaking, Ioana told her it was a question of deciding whether to try to fight it or not. Eggie said, “Lala and Costa had just recently lost their father. I knew that it would be too much, if I died. I knew that I simply had to live.”

So the will to live is the decision to love. And you, our Eggie, decided a long time ago, no matter what the cost, to love and create, to listen and observe, to feel and express, to garden and cook and give. 

So what is a nun doing crying? Nuns should’ve died a long time ago, and keep dying daily. 

But, the Lord Jesus did miss the funeral of His friend, Lazarus, and He did cry. 

And then He went and resurrected him, 

as He will you, our priceless Eggie, and all of us with you. 

Christ is Risen! Christos Anesti! Christos a inviat!”