Just about everyone who comes to Ajijic to retire has a colorful story to tell, and Sonya Strahl is one of them.
A feisty 83-year old woman born in Germany in 1934, Strahl claims to have had upwards of fifty jobs throughout her life, ranging from New York’s Yiddish theater and the corporate world to hands-on healing.
During her first visit to Ajijic in 2003, she stayed four months, fell in love the Mexican culture and decided one day to return. Fourteen years later, she got her temporary visa in San Francisco, California and sold everything, not wanting to bring old memories into her new life. “I moved here last May to start my last hurrah in wonderful Ajijic.”
In 1933, Hitler came into power. Strahl was born a year later into an Orthodox Jewish family in Munich, Germany. Needless to say, her early years came with its share of drama.
“One night,” she says, “the German police came to our home and led us into the basement. The next morning they put us on a train headed to a concentration camp. When we reached the border, the Polish government sent a dignitary to the train and everyone with Polish passports, which we had, were taken back to Germany. My father was sent to a men’s camp in England while my mother, my grandparents and I went to Naples, Italy. My grandparents took care of me while my mother worked as a maid.”
Three years later, in 1940, her father arrived in New York and sent for them. Strahl was five years old. Soon after, her mother took her to Yiddish theater to audition for the lead role.
Says Strahl, “My grandfather was a cantor and my father would sing with him in synagogue. That’s how I got my singing voice.”
She continues: “The next night, after my audition, the phone rang. A lady told my mom, ‘Bring your daughter down immediately; our lead girl got sick.’ Children in the Yiddish theater would always get the lead. I got there an hour before show time and, with the help of a prompter, performed the whole show, singing, dancing and acting.”
Strahl continued to perform in Yiddish theater until around 12 years old, at which point she became too “old.”
Continuing in show business, Strahl created her own act in the Borscht Belt — a nickname for the one-time summer resorts in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
“Every summer,” she says, “I was doing two or three shows a night at different hotels, changing costumes in my car. I also taught the popular dances of the time to adults and ran a dance school, teaching tap, ballet and jazz to children, ages two to sixteen.”
Reaching 19 and having grown tired of the life of a performer, Strahl was ready to move on. Without skills, she landed a job as a file clerk. Unfortunately, she fell asleep the first day on the job and got fired. Show business, she learned, was a tough act to follow.
In 1972, while going through a divorce, she answered an ad for a secretary, got the job and became promoted to assistant to the Commissioner of Major League Soccer. She even had her photo and story on the front page of the New York Times sports section in 1977, being the first woman to be promoted to such a position.
Finally, having burned out from such a demanding job, which involved travel, she ended up in the hospital. A kindly soccer coach offered her his San Diego home to recuperate. Once recovered, she was offered a job with Scrips Research in the Immune-Biology Department.
“I loved the job,” she says, “but my window looked out onto the beach. With such an inviting view, who could get any work done?” She eventually landed a job in San Francisco with one of the city’s biggest law firms.
Strahl believes in living a health-oriented life. She carries on her mindfulness meditation practice. She also walks or takes the bus everywhere she needs to go, bringing along her dog, Morgan.
“I love animals, so I came to Ajijic with the intention of doing animal hands-on healing. In the early 1980s, I volunteered doing hands-on healing with cancer and AIDS patients at Northern California’s Marin General. I moved on to work with animals when my dog was attacked by another dog and suffered major trauma. The vet operated for over two hours and said he wouldn’t make it. I gave him hands-on healing and when I brought him to the vet a week later, he was completely healed.”
While at lakeside, besides wanting to work with animals, Strahl wants to fulfill another passion of hers: volunteering holding babies at a local orphanage. Plus, with dancing still in her bones, she plans to go salsa dancing at Adelita’s — as soon as she can find the time.
To contact Strahl, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">