Sonia Reichman was a champion of the brain's frontal lobes, the part of the brain that thinks ahead, solves problems and stops us from saying things better left unsaid. Along with her elegant English, spiced with South African vowel patterns, she spoke fluent Czech and Hebrew. Those who knew her clinical work were struck by her compassion and capacity for coaching people, often adults with damage to their frontal lobes, through life's rough patches.
Sonia was the first child of Holocaust survivors Dolly and Alex Reichman. Her father was sentenced to hard labour for helping Jews escape from Poland and Slovakia. When Sonia was 3 she and her mother followed him to Ostrava, a mining town in Moravia. They lived there along with Sonia's younger sister Judy until Sonia's mid-teens. In 1965, the family made a dangerous escape from Czechoslovakia that ultimately took them to Israel.
Sonia met her first husband on a kibbutz in Israel and moved with him to his native South Africa, where she became a successful fashion model. Some 10 years later, upon her return to Israel, the marriage ended. Sonia's interests in language and cognition led her to complete a degree in linguistics and cognitive neuroscience studies at Tel Aviv University.
In 1986, Sonia was admitted to the University of Toronto, where she earned a master's degree in speech language pathology. In 1991, she married George Novak, her high-school sweetheart from Czechoslovakia who had also immigrated to Toronto. From that marriage came her beloved daughter, Hanna. While the marriage ended, Sonia's and George's friendship endured.
Sonia worked with children with dyslexia and with people suffering communication disorders after stroke and traumatic brain injury. She did nothing by half measures, committing to a project only if she could give it her all.
Last January found Sonia and Hanna contemplating their upcoming birthdays - Sonia's 61st and Hanna's 16th. Inspired by that symmetry, they used the occasion to celebrate their bond. They co-hosted a birthday bash that brought their friends and relatives together for delectable Czech pastries and musical performances. Sonia told guests that Hanna was her greatest pride and achievement, and Hanna gave a moving speech that testified to her great love for Sonia. Only six weeks later, Sonia's grieving friends and relatives gathered again for her funeral.
Sonia squeezed the best from life. She listened carefully, laughed often and heartily and loved deeply. Her strong, compassionate voice will live on for all whose lives she touched.
Valerie Fish is Sonia's friend and colleague.
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