She was born in Romania on April 19, 1931 of German parents. She and her two brothers, Roland and Reinhard Spitzbarth, were orphaned during WWII and separated. As a child during the war she shared rationed food with prisoners of war. This spirit of compassion was the hallmark of her life.
After the war, at age 19, Freya escaped from East Germany and later graduated from nursing school in West Germany. She worked as a pediatric nurse in both Germany and Spain and traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East. In Turkey she worked as a governess, and in the summers participated in archaeological digs with her uncle, Prof. Helmuth Bossert. While working in Turkey, she met the man who would be her husband, Mehmet Turhan Arundar.
Freya was subsequently invited to work in the U. S. by the State Department. She moved to the U.S. in 1962, where she was one of the first pediatric intensive care nurses in Atlanta, working at what is now Eggleston Children’s Hospital. She worked at several Atlanta hospitals throughout her career, and retired from Kindred Hospital in 2001 after surgical procedure left her with heart damage.
Freya always stood up for those who were mistreated. During the turbulent years of segregation in Atlanta, she was one of the only white nurses to care for African-American babies. In the early days of the HIV outbreak, when the cause of the disease was unknown, Freya was one of the few who volunteered to work with AIDS patients.
Her hobbies included organic gardening, sewing, cooking, and baking. She always provided cookies and cakes for bake sales and loved baking with children. She shared her plants and gardening advice with friends, neighbors and strangers; donating truckloads of plants to Habitat for Humanity.
She made friends with everyone she met. When she first became an invalid in 2001, scores people including workers from the stores she frequented, delivery men, and the neighborhood sanitation workers, came to the house to ask about her because they had not seen her in the garden.
Freya is survived by her daughter, Sonya, and countless friends. One of the most generous and caring people, freely giving of her time to help others, she is sorely missed. A celebration of her life will be held on February 23 at 1:30 at First Christian Church of Atlanta located at 4532 LaVista Rd, Tucker, GA 30084.
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