Maja Ortrud Elfi Paul (71) passed away peacefully on April 14th, 2016 in Hamilton , New Jersey after a courageous fight against pancreatic cancer. Maja was born January 10th, 1945 in Leukersdorf, Erzgebirge region, Germany to Ortrud Paul and Helmut Lang, who had been drafted towards the end of World War II and never made it back home to see his baby girl. She remained an only child.

Maja was a bright and intelligent woman and earned degrees in Chemistry and in International Business. Additionally, she was fluent in multiple languages, such as English, German and Russian and also spoke basic Bulgarian and Czech. Growing up in East Germany (GDR), she did not bend and join the one-party system, although it led to disadvantages in her professional career. Maja's favorite role was her International Trade position in Prague and she last worked in Newspaper Advertising before retiring in 2006 to move to the USA to join her daughter who had immigrated years earlier.

Maja used every opportunity that arose to travel and explore the world. Among her favorite trips were her tour around all the South Pacific Islands , her trips to the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as her last vacation to Guatemala in 2014. Maja has had a lifelong love for Hawaii based on a book she read in middle school. Shortly after the Berlin wall fell, she was finally able to visit the beautiful islands and was able to come back a couple more times during the past two decades.

It was her last wish to be cremated and join the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean in Hawaii .

Maja was a voracious reader and after decades was still able to quote poems and passages from important literature. During the last years of her life, Maja picked up another hobby and made beautiful crafts out of shells and sea glass.

She is survived by her daughter, Olivia Knight, who inherited Maja's love for books and travel.