Erika Briggs, MD Obituary (1921

Erika Ellen Briggs, M.D., died on Sunday, May 20, a warm, blue-skied day of gentle breezes, birdsong and brilliant sun shining on the green and blossoming world; it was a solar eclipse. She died after seven days of constant vigil and tender care by exceptional A1 staff of MaineGeneral Medical Center, friends and family who attended to her palliative comfort with their ministrations -- meds, music, words, touch -- in a room filled with flowers (mostly lilacs) from her extensive gardens.For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heavena time to be born, and a time to diea time to plant, and a time to pluck what is plantedErika was born on August 17, 1921, in Estonia, a small country in Baltic Europe, at a time of original independence, a fact joyously celebrated by people of Erika's generation. She prospered in family farms, the villages and towns, working in the family pharmacy, which augmented her early interest in medicine. This interest she pursued with characteristic single-mindedness, as evidenced by graduating with medical degrees from University of Tartu (Estonia), Gttingen (Germany), and NYU (with post-grad classes at Columbia), which necessitated skilled knowledge of three languages (the study of medicine is basically all in Latin anyway).The bulk of her professional career was spent at Togus VA Medical Center. Coming from NYC in 1960, she had trained at Bellevue and a VA center in Manhattan (where she built a top-of-the line hi-fi system in her free time). Working with Vietnam-era veterans and their families, she loved her work and introduced new treatment models, which reflected her nuanced palate of professional therapies. She drew from such diverse sources as Freud, Jung, Karen Horney, and Carl Rogers, to more recent popularists like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and Ram Dass (whom she met while attending Omega Institute), but especially the personal words of each patient, whom she understood held the clues to their own healing. A lifelong scholar, Erika respected and also studied ancient knowledge (the Bible, the Kabbalah, Buddhism, spirituality). She was a member of many professional associations (AMA, APA, MPA, etc.), and received awards for her work in psychiatry.a time to weep, and a time to laughDr. Briggs found her life's work early on, while hanging out with cows and eating wild berries on family farms in Eesti, treating proverbial broken dolls as patients. The Togus community was as a family to her. She counted them, her Estonian school chums in exile, and her bridge group, among her closest friends.a time to seek, and a time to losea time to keep, and a time to cast away;a time to rend, and a time to sewShe was involved in and contributed generously to multiple organizations. To name a few: Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, CARE, Earthjustice, Special Olympics, NARFE, the Humane Society, Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, Disabled American Veterans and Estonian philanthropic organizations.Erika loved to travel. She brought her then young daughter several times to Bermuda and The Adirondacks. She lived for four years in Ray Brook, N.Y. She took family or went with friends on four consecutive ESTO festivals (Estonians in exile gathered every four years in groups of thousands): Baltimore ('76), Stockholm ('80), Toronto ('84), and Melbourne ('88). Vienna was a place that she was fond of. She revisited Estonia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. With friends from Gttingen days she traveled to places as diverse as Australia, Scandinavia, Alaska, Fiji, and Vancouver. She and her family took many trips along the Atlantic Coast, to New York state, and Ohio. Yet it was in the 1970s and early '80s that she found her heart's joy in The Virgin Islands.Always returning to Maine, she reveled in the domesticity of garden, kitchen, and library. Her home is a museum of books, art, plants. She enjoyed the company of friends and gave lavish dinner parties that displayed her generosity along with her love of the gourmet arts. She subscribed to manifold cooking magazines plus had a bookcase full of cookbooks, the recipes of which she practiced diligently and often.Erika was a woman of vast intelligence, beauty, and accomplishment. Multi-skilled with many interests, she was an award-winning quilter, finely handcrafting masterpieces, exactingly refusing to use a machine of any part of any quilt. She was a watercolorist and worked also with textiles. She was an intrepid swimmer. She loved partner dancing, in which she excelled. Her appreciation of convertibles was legendary: she drove a succession of them starting with a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Aire. Music that she loved (she herself sang and played the piano): Rosemary Clooney, The Moody Blues, Strauss waltzes, Roberta Flack (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face), Bach and all the classics, and any piece of music that gave way to passion.what has been is what will be ...She is survived by a daughter, four grandchildren, a brother and his family.Quotes courtesy of Erika and Ecclesiastes.