EULOGY FOR SOPHIE C. WICKINS

By Julia A. Conway

 

Today we are here to remember and celebrate Sophie’s life, and do our best at  saying farewell.

First, Let me thank all of you who are here today out of love and support for Sophie, for her mom Helen and close companion Robert Strempel, and for all of us that were close to Sophie.

 

Sophie was the beloved daughter of Helen and Robert James.

Helen, a social worker and teacher and her husband Robert, a lawyer moved to Hong Kong in 1976, where Robert took a position as Associate Professor of Law at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, while Helen taught English and history at the Diocesan secondary school for girls.  They remained in Hong Kong for twenty years.  It was during this time in 1987 that Sophie was born, living there until she was ten.

 

Her mum tells me that Sophie was a ‘water baby’ from the start and absolutely loved being in and around the water.  Should would often be swimming and bubbling along happily in the pool while other kids would be crying to get out.

 

At 4 ½ Sophie began attending Gun Club Hill School, which was run by the British Army for military personnel.  Even though the Wickins’ were not a military family, there happened to be shortage of girls attending the school at the time, so Sophie’s application was readily accepted.   An added bonus was that Sophie’s school was right across the street from the school where Helen taught and therefore meant they could ride back and forth to school together.

 

Starting school for Sophie wasn’t without a couple of minor hiccups.  On the first day, her mum dropped her off at school, as is often the case parent’s were encouraged to leave immediately after dropping off, Sophie was fine with this but no one had explained to her that when the bell rang the students were to all line up and go to class.  She had instead went wandered about the school grounds - when her teacher noticed that she was missing at roll call, there was a panicked search and when Sophie was finally located, her teacher dismissed her as a ‘troublemaker’ and had her reassigned to a new class. I chuckled when I heard that story, because those of us that know Sophie would describe her as anything but a troublemaker.

 

Sophie’s very first award was presented to her within the first couple of weeks of school -  this award was for learning to tie her shoes J  You see when she started school at 4 1/2 she was the only student in her class that couldn’t tie her own shoes - this mortified her, and determined as Sophie was, she made her mind up to learn to tie her shoes , which she did in short order - resulting in her very first award.

 

During her years in Hong Kong Sophie spent much of her leisure time at ‘The United Services Recreation Club’ which was endowed with numerous sporting and recreational facilities, including an Olympic size pool where Sophie first learned to swim.

 

Though her time here, was too short, sophie had the chance to live a very rich and fulfilling life, frequently traveling the world during holidays with her parents to places such as London, Paris, Greece, Amsterdam, Singapore, Indonesia, Hawaii, and Australia.

 

Her love of animals was apparent early on, especially during these trips, when her mum and dad would bribe her with the prospect of attending an aquarium or zoo, if she would first be a good girl while visiting the historical institutions.

 

Her mum believes that this is how she first associated animals with happiness, because these were some of her happiest times, this in a way may have begun her journey into veterinary medicine. Walking and feeding the animals whenever possible, cats, ducks or whatever animal she could find.   During many of their holidays she would even sneak cold meat into her bag while they were at restaurants so she could feed stray cats in the park, and to Sophie’s delight the cats all would surround her for their feast.

 

With the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, Sophie and her mum moved to Australia, with her dad returning to Adelaide in early 1998. 

Sophie’s dad passed away when she was ten.

At this point mum and daughter became extremely close, as it was now just the two of them.

 

In Adelaide, Sophie attended the Saint Peter's Collegiate Girls' School , where she continued to excel with her scholastic achievements. She bonded with a group of girls that was dubbed the ‘dream team’ because they were so well liked by the teachers for numerous reasons.

It was near the end of Sophie’s high school years, that Robert Strempel came into their lives.  Having two sons of his own, Sophie quickly became the daughter he never had and Sophie was always extremely supportive of Rob being in their lives.

Upon graduation from High School, at the age of 17 Sophie began attending Sydney University.  Unfortunately, because the drinking age was 18 Sophie could not attend many of the orientation activities as alcohol was present.    This led to a brief stint of mischievous behavior on her part, as she started borrowing ID cards from her friends in order to get into the pubs, even going so far as to die her hair blonde to match the ID card of a fair haired friend.

While at ‘uni’ Sophie did a six week externship at Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital in the United Arab Emirates.  Now many of us know that Sophie wasn’t always the most coordinated person, in fact she and I had several giggles over the fact that she could never learn to ride a bicycle.  Well this lack of coordination was a particular challenge during this externship because she needed to learn to hold the falcons on one arm, while tying intricate knots on their feet, only using one hand.  It apparently took a bit of time and an abundance of patience on the part of her teachers, but she finally mastered it.

 

After graduating from the University of Sydney with 1^st class honors and not too long before she came to the US, Sophie and her family took a 10 day holiday in Maldives, staying in a thatched house on stilts over a lagoon, with lots of sea life swimming below.  Helen says this is was one of their best times, with many great memories - as they were so very happy.

 

Sophie’s journey to UF began with one of her pathology mentors at the University of Sydney, Michelle Dennis.  While setting up a program for large animal path in Sydney, Michelle was consulting with one of our pathologists and mentors Claus Buergelt. During their correspondence Michelle mentioned -  Sophie would be a great candidate for our program and Claus encouraged her to apply.

Now, We have had numerous residents from Australia over the years – interestingly they all ended up in the same cubicle, at first this was just a coincidence, then that cubby became reserved for the next Aussie to arrive, marking their territory by hanging an Australian Flag on the wall in front of the computer.

 

Even though due to visa issues, Sophie arrived a couple months behind the other residents, in honor of tradition, no one was allowed to take that cubby, as it was reserved for our newest Aussie, Sophie.

 

From a faculty perspective Sophie was an absolute pleasure to work with; intelligent, polite, professional and enthusiastic, she could also be quiet (yet quite boisterous when she would get going) .  She had an unwavering work ethic and set high standards for herself, she was a natural pathologist and was advanced for her level of training.  Sometimes when residents start the program late, it can be more difficult to get into the swing of things.  But not for Sophie , she was a proud, extremely dedicated and intelligent individual that picked up pathology very quickly.  She also entered a resident class that is their very own version of a ‘dream team’ they all work closely and very well together, bonding as friends and resident-mates - that team will forever be missing their Sophie. 

We will all miss our Sophie!!!

 

 

The other day Sophie’s mum shared a few additional bits and stories with me that  made me smile, as some I could relate to, and some were new things I was just learning about Sophie.  I think these stories celebrate and exemplify who and what Sophie was.  I wanted to share some of these you:

 

1.     Sophie played the piano and the saxophone and took horseback riding lessons

2.     Some of her favorite activities included reading, poetry, sailing, snorkeling, drama and acting, in fact sophie was the lead in several roles in her school plays as she had a loud clear voice when on stage.

3.     She was strong willed – even as a child – in fact when Sophie was two, her father came home with a book titled “ how to deal with a strong willed child” – mum told him she thought they were doing just fine.

4.     Sophie also had no fear of animals from a very early age, chasing geckos in Indonesia,  holding a giant python around her shoulders when she was very little.   Even at the Amsterdam zoo a goose she was petting decided to peck at her brown fringe, mum was horrified but sophie thought it was wonderful and was very entertained.

5.     She was sweet and caring - One time when her mum scraped the car door against a gate, sophie piped up with‘don’t worry mummy, now the car will be less attractive for robbers to steal.’ – who could be upset about a little scrape after a sweet comment like that.

6.     Sophie had a love of luxury, when she was around nine, she and her family stayed at the Vanderbilt hotel in London and she was just fascinated with the marble floors, the fixtures, the huge tub and just the overall opulence of their suite.  In fact she announced to her daddy that he could return to Hong Kong while she and her mum lived in that hotel room for a year just enjoying the luxury.  This particular anecdote really made me smile, because knowing this now, I can only imagine what was going through Sophie’s head the first time she entered the resident room and our necropsy suite J

7.     Growing up Sophie also had a dog and a cat that were much adored, both adopted from the RSPCA (royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals).

Most of all Helen wants us to know that Sophie was much loved, not just because she was an only child, but because she was Sophie, with all her most wonderful qualities.

 

 

 

 

Personally, I will miss many things about Sophie

-         Her smile

-         Her laughter

-         Her sweet tooth

-         Those times when sophie would come out of her shell and ‘really get on a roll’  -  she could be hysterical and undoubtedly these episodes ended with her laughing so hard she would squeek

-         I’ll miss her coming into my office to talk or ask questions

-         I’ll miss passing her in the hall, with her slightly crooked walk, especially when she was tired

-         I’ll miss working with her and forever being surprised by how quick she picked up pathology and learned new things. 

-         I’ll miss her splashing me with, ‘all kinds of things’ on the necropsy floor

-         I’ll miss constantly learning new things about Sophie, - because most of us didn’t learn everything about sophie at once, you would learn bits and pieces, as she was ready to share, almost like reading a novel.

for example it was only about six months ago I was in the resident room and we were having one of those moments where we were all chatting, cutting up and laughing, somehow the fact that Sophie was blonde at one point while at “uni” came up, I was surprised and Sophie, in that animated way that she had was like ‘oh yeah, I’ll show you’ she grabbed her phone and pulled up the picture.  It now makes me smile again after hearing her mum’s story about the reason she died her hair.

-         I ‘ll miss her voice, though ironically on a particularly rough day last week I realized I had a missed voicemail, it was from Sophie, which startled me, the voicemail was from the week before about one of our cases.  I’ve saved that voicemail and I’d like to think that somehow, someway, it was a way of her saying hello to us, hang in there and stick together.

 

We may forever wonder why we had to lose Sophie so soon, and that is the hardest part of all!

 

I would like to say To Sophie’s mom, and to Rob– you have my deepest sympathies—and I hope during this difficult time you will find some comfort in seeing how widely and deeply Sophie was cherished and loved by her UF family.

 

 

 

Let Me Go
Unknown

We’ve known lots of pleasure,
At times endured pain,
We’ve lived in the sunshine
And walked in the rain.

But now we’re separated
And for a time apart,
But I am not alone-
You’re forever in my heart.

 

Death always seems so sudden,
And it is always sure,
But what is oft’ forgotten-
It is not without a cure.

I’m walking now with someone,
And I know He’ll always stay,
I know He’s walking with you too,
Giving comfort everyday.

There may be times you miss me,
I sort of hope you do,
But smile when you think of me,
For I’ll be waiting for you.

Now there’s many things for you to do,
And lots of ways to grow,
So get busy, be happy, and live your life,
Miss me, but let me go.