Lizette Swaim

After a lengthy battle with breast cancer, Lizette (Lizzie) Blondet Swaim passed away peacefully on July 22, 2017 in her home on Belton Lake, Texas.
Lizzie was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to Jose Blondet and Ana Hernandez on May 14, 1951 and grew-up in nearby Caguas.
Her father's untimely death did not deter her mother from insuring she got the education he'd promised. She attended a private parochial school through eighth-grade and then the Notre Dame Preparatory boarding school near Caguas. At the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, she earned a baccalaureate in business (accounting major). Soon after graduation in 1973, she and some of her classmates began their new lives working for Eastern Airlines.
Her many opportunities to travel and the lure for adventure inspired her to seek different experiences and locales and make new friends.
She met Howard L. Swaim in 1978 while starting her career as a tax preparer/accountant in Alabama near Fort Rucker. Any relationship they might have had was interrupted when he entered the Army's rotary wing instructor pilot course and she relocated with H&R Block and for graduate studies at the University of North Carolina, Raleigh.
Armed with an MBA, early in 1981 Lizzie accepted an offer to work at MICON's corporate accounting division in L. A. When the luster of the corporate environment was lost, she spent the next several months at home pondering whether to take the CPA examinations or a long sabbatical. But, after the holidays of '81-'82, when she decided to reconnect with old friends, Howard had been reassigned to Germany.
Neither could have known how her trip to visit him would change their lives. One month after her arrival, early in January 1983, Lizzie and Howard were engaged. They wed on February 25th in a tiny burg named Hessenthal, next to Dolan Barracks, Schwaebisch Hall Army Airfield where Howard was stationed.
Returning to the U.S. in 1985, Lizzie resumed and excelled at work with H&R Block advancing from tax preparer to their Executive Accounting Service. In 1987, she was selected to implement Block's "Rapid Refund (pilot) Program", the first-ever, one-and-only automated IRS-direct filing system. During the orientation training she had the honor of meeting Mr. Henry Bloch.
For the next 25 years, Lizzie maintained her status with H&R Block while taking full advantage of every opportunity to travel. On their assignments in Alabama, North Carolina, Texas, Germany and Italy, they were able to tour France, England, Austria, Yugoslavia, Spain and Greece, skiing in the Rockies and the Alps, cruising the Med, shopping in New York City, Vienna, Milan, Munich, and Venice or sailing with the Belton Lake Yacht Club, all the while meeting new people, making new friends and sampling local cuisines.
Lizzie and Howard cherished their 34-year marriage and their home on Belton Lake where they have welcomed many visitors; over Christmas 2000 they host 21 friends and family for 4 days.
After retiring in 2003, with their 2 Boston terriers and Himalayan (Himmy cat), they logged several thousand miles "RV'ing".
In 2010, the loss of one their beloved Boston's piqued their interest in pet rescue. Their home has been a respite since for their five pets, (Chevy, Pepper, Cadence, S.O.S. and Colt) and many Boston terrier and other small breeds, vetted and adopted.
Lizzie is preceded in death by her father, Jose J. Blondet, her mother, Ana Hernandez, and her sister, Aileen Blondet She is survived by her husband, Howard Swaim and her brother, Jose H. Blondet.
A memorial service will be held a Harper-Talasek Funeral Home at 503 N. Main St., Belton, Texas, at 11 a.m. on Friday, July 28, 2017. Her cremains will be entombed in the Blondet family plot at the Santa Maria
Magdelena de Pazzis cemetery in Old San Juan, P.R., where she may forever rest in peace.
Instead of flowers, please contribute to the American Cancer Society or the Texas Boston Terrier Rescue Association in her memory (See: TBTR on Facebook). Your contribution will go a long way to help find a cure for this dreadful disease, or if you choose, to shelter, medicate and find a "furever" home for a deserving animal.

Service

HarperTalasek Funeral Chapel
503 N. Main St.
Belton, TX  76513
Friday, July 28, 2017
11:00 a.m.

Memorial Contributions

American Cancer Society
PO BOX 22478
Oklahoma City, OK  73123

Texas Boston Terrier Rescue Association
5819 Woodland Falls
Kingwood, TX  77345