Meike died from Pneumonia and Covid-19 at Mease Hospital in Dunedin, Florida on 4 February 2021.
She was 68 years old and had courageously fought off Non-Hodgins Lymphoma since 1991.
Meike (her Dutch nickname) was born Maria Meiriati Setiajaya in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia on 12
June 1952 to businessman Han Setiajaya and his wife Angela. Given the Chinese birthname name of
Mey Lien, Meike was educated in Dutch and Catholic primary and secondary schools. She spoke four
languages fluently: Bahasa Indonesian, Dutch, English, and German.
In 1965, she and her family escaped death in the coup d’etat that led to the deaths of about 500,000
people – mostly ethnic Chinese who sympathized with the Sukarno Government as well as members of
the Indonesian Communist Party. She grew under the military dictatorship of General Suharto until
she emigrated to America in the late 1970s.
Meike attended the University of Bandung where she studied anthropology. Socially outgoing and a
natural beauty, she set aside her university studies in the early 1970s to embark upon a career in the
travel industry. After a short stint as a model, Pan America Airways stewardess and would-be beauty
queen (runner up for Miss Indonesia), Meike joined the staff of the America Embassy in Jakarta as a
travel agent. There she met and married Daniel Hendrix, a soldier assigned to the Office of the
Defense Attaché.
They transferred to Fort Carson, Colorado. On 23 October 1978 son Chris was born in nearby Colorado
Springs. They moved to Aschaffenburg, Germany in the early 1980s and divorced in 1982. In 1983,
Meike met Brian Buxton and they married in 1984.
Meike loved to travel and together Brian, Meike and Chris explored much of Europe, Indonesia, and
the Caribbean. They were stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Washington, DC. In 1999 they
divorced and Meike eventually met Douglass Treat, a foreign service officer. Together they travelled
widely and indulged their love of dancing. Upon retiring as the travel agent for National Public Radio,
Douglas retired from the U.S. State Department. Both he and Meike moved to Palm Harbor, Florida. In
2019, Douglas succumbed to Alzheimer’s Disease.
A memorial Mass will be held at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC on ____.
Their ashes will then be taken to Java where Meike and Douglas will be interred with other members of
the Setiajaya family.
Meike is survived by son Christopher S. Hendrix-Buxton as well as numerous nieces and nephews in
America and Indonesia. This remarkably intrepid and benevolent woman will be remembered for her
deep Catholic faith and love of life. She will be missed dearly.