Obituary of Sonja Wood
Sonja was born in Newmarket, Ontario on September 26, 1961, but when she was 3 years of age she and her sister Tammy moved to Nova Scotia, where they would soon begin new lives into their adoptive family, the Wood's. Most of her childhood was spent up on the small family farm in Mt. Thom, where there was always work to be done around the barn or gardens. Sonja can be said to have had a sheltered upbringing, wholesome homegrown meals, and Pentecostal teachings. School, on the other hand, was not so kind to Sonja who struggled to do well. In later years she tells us that scoring good grades was provably impossible, and her hopes of becoming a vet were in vain.
Another of Sonja's pastimes was singing, mostly in church, but also with her sister on a makeshift stage behind their house with the family for an audience. As she became a teenager, her tastes began to lean into the rock'n'roll and folk and country music genres, and soon she had performed along with her uncle Jimmy in his band Little Smoke, lighting a spark that would never depart Sonja in years to come.
After high school, Sonja moved away from Mt. Thom and began a series of small jobs before deciding to pursue music studies at Acadia University. Sonja dreamt of being a lead singer in a rock band, and she had the goods to pull it off. She had stage presence, a beautiful and confident voice, a 'perfect' sense of pitch, and she was beautiful! But before she could join a band or begin her formal studies, she had just one little thing that had to be taken care of first. Sonja had seen the newscasts about starvation among the Ethiopian peoples, and government had sent one airlift of supplies (but had no plans to send a second shipment), so she was going to walk around the entire province of Nova Scotia with her sheepdog Sampson, for protection, to raise awareness and donations to put the Ethiopian situation back into the news cycle.
It worked. Sonja walked for about two months, travelled through countless communities, and was lauded by all for her tenacity and civil awareness – something not often so admirably developed in a 23-year-old. Sonja became a Nova Scotia icon, a hero, and a household name in many parts. Her story and journey was only beginning.
Three weeks after finishing her epic trek, Sonja ended up getting an apartment in Wolfville and registered for the upcoming semester at Acadia. She had a live stage audition with a band in Berwick, and got the job before she even walked off the stage. She and two friends then drove home towards Wolfville where they would be involved in a terrible head-on collision with another car. While her friends survived with minor injuries, Sonja was left paralyzed from the waist down. A delegate from the Ethiopian consulate drove down to visit her in the hospital and told her she was officially recognized as Ethiopian Family.
Sonja's spirit, and constitution, burned bright and strong as ever. She vowed to someday get back on her feet, even planning to shirk-off the paralysis, and amazed everyone in the rehab with a speedy recovery and rebound straight back to Wolfville where her music studies and rock'n'roll career awaited. However, soon the realities of her limited mobility, the steep hills of the town, and difficulties accessing all her classes caused her to drop out and focus instead on her performing career.
Social activism would soon come to Sonja again. While she was forever helping others in small and meaningful ways, she always seemed to find another BIG cause, and to each she would apply her special tenacity, along with numerous homemade placards or signs. Without being exhaustive the milestones include: biking around the province on a hand-powered 3-wheeled road trike (to show support for Canadian Unity during the Quebec Separation crisis); a 17-day roadside 'vigil' alongside the spot where her accident and paralysis occurred (to pressure the provincial government into Twinning Hwy. 101, it worked, and many people see Sonja as one of the heroes); a 43-day roadside 'vigil' at the Ben Jackson crossing on Hwy. 101 (to pressure the government again, into properly servicing the area with a full highway-interchange instead of secluding it with a tunnel...it worked); Sonja assumed the chair-person role for the Friends of the Avon River in 2002, and has fought with the provincial government and federal DFO for more than two decades to see the rightful restoration of the Avon River to it's former, pre-causeway healthfulness, for fish populations, which she loved (Sonja technically won this battle too, though the project hasn't officially concluded, and the PLAN for the river not yet 'out of the bag'). With regard to the fish of the Avon River, Sonja organized numerous petitions through the years, to a succession of different Ministers of Fisheries, and held meetings, rallies, and in 2019 travelled on her wheelchair-scooter, along secondary highways, from the Avon River causeway all the way to Ottawa (to pressure the feds to uphold their fisheries' laws and do right by this river).
Outside of activism, Sonja was also quite busy. She went on to have two beautiful girls, Ayla and Alysha, and to build an ambitious family home on the banks of the Avon River, overlooking the cliffs at Blue Beach. She did volunteer work for several disabilities foundations, and travelled to New York to help develop a prototype walking-brace...which she kept in her attic for years. She lobbied with Ralph Nader against Ford Pinto's, the car she was in during her accident. Most impressively though, she worked on her music career, releasing two cd's and two videos under her own name, and was nominated for each at the ECMA's.
Not being able to focus on just one goal, Sonja let music slip to the wayside and began to develop the Blue Beach Fossil Museum with her new partner, Chris, who caught her eye and had an apartment full of fossils from her beach in particular (which he was researching). Sonja became the heart and soul of the practical side of this business, allowing Chris to do his thing with the rocks, and he is still doing it to this day thanks to her. Scientists around the globe now know of her, and she is soon having an important volume from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science dedicated to her honour. She also has two different ancient fossil forms named after her. The next step in acknowledging the contributions and bravery of Sonja Wood should probably be The Order of Canada.
It is therefore with great, and at times profound sadness that we announce the passing on October 15th of our most precious and beloved Sonja Elizabeth Wood after her long battle with cancer. Sonja is survived by: husband, Chris Mansky; daughters Ayla (Tebogt-Wood) and Alysha (Travis)Wood, and grandson Aubrey J. Kelly; her siblings Kevin (Tanya) Wood, Tammy (Danny) Snider, and Trevor (Crystal) Wood; nieces and nephews Stephen, Sarah, Marc, Kristofer and Richie; aunts and uncles Lillian MacLeod, Jim (Tina) Wood, Lorna Wood, Johnnie (Leona) Wood, Jim (Helen) Russell, and Hennie Vessio; and finally, by numerous cousins not named here. Sonja was predeceased by her parents Chester and Betty Wood, and by aunts and uncles Bill Wood, Arthene Wood, Ronnie Wood, Mack MacLeod, Sally Emery, Angus Russell, and Clary Russell.
Sonja's last plan is to join her lord in heaven, to fight battles in his name. Godspeed her to her next project.