Sonia Isabel Yudcovitch

Sonia’s life began in Jamaica in 1942. She was the second of four children, raised by her mother, Isabel, and her father, Roydon, along with her older sister, Winsome, sister Arlene, and brother, Howard. Her parents were highly educated, and their children’s education was their top priority. She attended boarding school, where she excelled, academically and athletically, as well as met her friend, Jean.

When Sonia was a pre-teen, she returned home from school, during summer break, to learn her mother was dying of cancer. Two weeks after learning this, she was at her mother’s bedside as she took her last breath. She returned to school that autumn and experienced little to no empathy from teachers and classmates aware of her loss, except Jean. The experience lit a fire within Sonia. She became an elite, student-athlete who played competitive tennis and played on Jamaica’s national netball team, which competed in both the Caribbean and the United Kingdom. She also danced with the theatre company in Jamaica where she encountered Bob Marley, who said, “Good evenin’, Queen”, to her as he walked past her.

After graduating from school, Sonia worked at Bank of Montreal, in Jamaica, where her mentor, who studied at the University of Calgary, encouraged her to do the same by applying for a Commonwealth Scholarship, which she did. She earned the scholarship and moved to Calgary in the winter of 1962.

Sonia enrolled in the Physical Education program at university where she met her first Canadian friend, Maxine. She later attended a campus gathering where she met our father, Nathan, a graduate student from Montreal. They married in Jamaica, in 1967, and returned to Calgary, where she gave birth to their first child, Lorne, in 1968.

Sonia graduated from university with two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees and earned her first teaching position at Earl Grey Elementary. In 1976, she gave birth to her and Nathan’s second child, Michael. Nathan began to experience challenges with his mental health which forced him to retire early, with the support of Sonia as well as his colleague and friend, Doug. She was, also, unexpectedly, reunited with her friend, Jean, who had moved to Calgary.

A few years later, Sonia earned a sabbatical and moved her family to Santa Barbara for a year, where she enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Santa Barbara. A few years after her sabbatical, she earned a promotion and became a program specialist with the Calgary Board of Education, where she met her colleague and friend, Bob. She, also, volunteered as a dancer and choreographer with the opening ceremonies of the Calgary Winter Olympic Games in 1988.

After the opening ceremonies, Sonia was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. That summer, we travelled to Hawaii, Fiji, and New Zealand, where she gave the keynote speech at an international education conference. When we returned to Calgary, she purchased a plot of land in Canmore, where she built a cabin. We, also, moved from Varsity Acres to Varsity Estates, to be close to our friends, including Jean, Bob, and his sister, also named Jean, as well as her son, Jeremy.

Sonia retired early from the Calgary Board of Education and started an international education consulting business, through which she taught, wrote, published, and sold books to schools and universities. Eventually, she sold her cabin, which helped pay the tuition for our private graduate education in the US. She and Nathan travelled. They visited friends and family in Canada, the US, as well as the Caribbean, until he passed away in 2008. She asked his friend, Doug, to be the Master of Ceremonies at his memorial.

A few years after Nathan’s memorial, Doug reached out to Sonia, after his spouse passed. They became companions. Together, they visited family and friends in Vancouver, Portland, Maui, and Cuba, before Doug passed. She also travelled with family to New York and Paris, as well as visited family and friends in La Jolla and Vancouver.

After Sonia returned from a visit with family, in Portland, she experienced a feeling of numbness in her leg and phoned her friend, Jean, who advised her to call 9-1-1. Jean and her son, Wayne, met her at her house, then met her in hospital, where she received emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from her femoral artery and stayed for a couple months. We visited her in hospital, along with family and friends, including Bob’s nephew, Jeremy, whom she asked to be her physician. While in hospital, her blood tests revealed that she had kidney failure.

Sonia, eventually, returned home from hospital and used a walker, which enabled her to maintain her independence for two and a half years. Over this time, she enjoyed visits and phone conversations with family and friends.

During our visit with Sonia, last Christmas, it became clear that she was unwell. After a few days, she acknowledged that she needed to ‘go into care’. She was, once again, transported to hospital. After five weeks in hospital, she was transferred to Agape Hospice, where her physician, Jeremy, worked and was responsible for her care. She received excellent care there. She enjoyed visits and phone conversations with family and friends, including two of her former students at Earl Grey Elementary, Adrian (Dulcie) and Heather (Iain), as well as their brother, Michael (Nanette), whom she reconnected with after their mother passed and consider her to be a godmother to them and their children, Dan, Alayna, Emily, Alison, Fiona, and Elsa. She was also visited by Maxine’s daughter, Jessica, a doula who helped prepare Sonia to transition to the spirit world, only a few hours before she took her final breaths. She held on, until we were with her, before she took her last breath and passed away, peacefully, with us at her bedside, along with Moya, her nurse assistant, who was also a mother of two from Jamaica.

A few days before Sonia passed, we had our last conversation with her. She was snuggled in her favourite fluffy, pink blanket from her daughter-in-law, Melissa, and eating her favourite coconut cake from her daughter-in-law, Roz, as we listened to Bob Marley. The last thing she said to us was, ‘I have two beautiful sons. I have a beautiful family and friends. I have had a beautiful life’.

Our mother, Sonia, did her best and angels can do no more. She is survived by us, her sons, Lorne and Michael, her daughters-in-law, Roz and Melissa, Winsome’s daughter, Erica, Howard and his daughter, Royanne Sonia, as well as cherished family and friends.

Sonia requested that we do not have a funeral or memorial for her. She asked that her ashes and our father’s ashes be sprinkled near the ocean and a tree be planted in their memory. If you wish to make a donation, in Sonia’s name, we invite you to consider Agape Hospice. We are, forever, grateful for their care.