When Karin Finell moved to Santa Barbara in 1985, she immersed herself in its literary community, opening her home to other writers as a meeting place to offer feedback on one another’s work. Her party at the close of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference became a memorable event that gave conference goers a place to unwind.
As a child in Germany before the war years, the extraordinary events in Karin’s life began early. She worked on her memoirs to chronicle those events in Santa Barbara, where she found ongoing support as a writer. She’d first attended the Writers Conference in the mid-1980s, and the connections made there proved to be a boon to her writing career. She became friends with conference founders Mary and Barnaby Conrad, as well as many other local literati.
Karin taught a class at Santa Barbara City College’s adult education program, “Writing Your Pain, Writing Your Grief,” to help people deal with loss. Because she’d been a friend of Anaïs Nin, Karin organized a commemoration through adult ed in 2003: “Anaïs Nin: 100 Years — A Writer, a Life.”
When it came to weighty subject matter, Karin had much to write about. Her dynamic memoir of her World War II years was titled Good-bye to the Mermaids: A Childhood Lost in Hitler’s Berlin.
She was born in 1930 in Liegnitz, Silesia, Germany (now Legnica in Poland), where her father was the chief editor of the local newspaper. Her parents divorced, due in part to her paternal grandmother’s disappointment Karin hadn’t been born a boy. Karin’s father, Wolfgang, wanted to name her Wolf Linda. Her mother defied him. Karin’s father remarried after the divorce, and Karin’s younger half-brothers were named Wolf Dieter, Wolf Eberhard, and Wolf Hubertus.
Karin’s household included her divorced mother and maternal grandmother, who’d been raised in Utah and spoke English. The family endured the Third Reich years from 1933 through the end of WWII in Europe, May 1945. They survived bombs, loss of home, food deprivation, and then the Fall of Berlin, during which tens of thousands were killed, and an estimated 100,000 girls and women were raped by Russian soldiers.
A huge inflow of German refugees from farther east marked the immediate post-war time, with continuing starvation, bitter cold winters with limited fuel, and the Berlin Airlift in 1948–1949 when the Soviets blocked land access to West Berlin.
Through wit and luck, Karin escaped the worst and maintained a determined survivor’s spirit. In 1952, Karin immigrated to the U.S. When her ship arrived in New York, she learned her father had died the very day she’d left the Fatherland, setting sail for America.
In 1960, Karin married Marvin Finell, a founding partner in a successful law firm. The couple lived in Beverly Hills and adopted a son, Steven, followed by the birth of their daughter, Stephanie. While her two children were young, Karin earned a master’s degree in English and was well on the way to her PhD from UCLA, when her then 7-year-old daughter contracted viral encephalitis from a mosquito bite.
Karin switched her focus to Stephanie’s recovery. It could be said that she gave birth to Stephanie twice — the second time was when Stephanie woke from a six-week coma and struggled to overcome brain damage from the encephalitis. Karin vowed Stephanie would defy doctors’ expectations and live her best possible life.
Through involvement with the Frostig Center in Los Angeles, and with various organizations in Santa Barbara supporting those in our community with brain damage, such as Jodi House and the Therapeutic Equestrian Center, Stephanie proved herself to be as much of a survivor as her mother had been under different challenging circumstances. Karin nurtured her daughter’s penchant for speaking poetry, with the help of Perie Longo, a well-known poet and teacher in Santa Barbara.
After her divorce from Finell, Karin met Martin Dent, a British wanderer, and married him. They shared an affinity for travel. Karin had a particular love of the American Southwest and a deep respect for the Navajo culture there.
In 1995, at age 31, Stephanie died of a seizure, a result of the effects of encephalitis. After losing her daughter, Karin wrote a moving memoir about Stephanie’s determination to live a full life, Broken Butterfly: My Daughter’s Struggle with Brain Injury.
Karin was invited to speak at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference after each publication. She continued to participate in the yearly conference throughout the remainder of her life.
A determined optimist until the end, Karin suffered age-related ailments, but she made it to her 93rd birthday. During a celebration of her life on June 30, friends shared memories of Karin. Clearly, she’d affected the lives of a large community of writers and friends. They mentioned her colorful sense of style; her propensity for welcoming newcomers; her penchant for giving good, but often unsolicited, advice — and there was her love of marzipan.
Karin is survived by her husband, Martin Dent; her son, Steven Finell, and his family in Kansas; as well as her three half-brothers, who reside in their native Germany. She will be missed by numerous fellow writers who appreciate the relentless hard work it takes to become a published author.
You must be logged in to post a comment.