In Memory of Sonja Parks-Simmons

In honor of Sonja’s birthday today, we are finally getting around to setting up this account.  As you are likely aware, our dear friend and former colleague Sonja Parks passed away on Thanksgiving.  Her son, Robert, is an only child and now an orphan – as he lost his father to cancer about 10 years back.  Sonja was one of the most generous people.  She was also incredibly hard-working and had the loudest laughter you could hear across the floor.  She was always in the office and an unbelievably dedicated employee.  But most importantly a dear friend.  My guess is that Sonja touched everyone’s lives in one way or another.  Therefore, we would like to create a memory book for Robert that includes all the hilarious, generous, kind and absolutely ridiculous stories we all have of Sonja.  We’ve already given a heads up to Robert and he is very much looking forward to it.

Please send any anecdotes, one-liners or Sonja stories by end of September directly to Amy (Tanenberg) Mauer.  We plan to make the book in October so that we can ship it to Robert in time for the one-year anniversary of her death on November 22.

 We are also started a Go Fund Me page to collect money for the family – primarily Robert – for those of you that would like to contribute as we have received a lot of inquiries.  Since Sonja passed away on Thanksgiving we plan to send food to Robert, her brother Daryl and her sister Burma.  We also have an order of Portillo’s / Lou Malnati’s currently in route to Robert in Nebraska.   We know that Sonja would have done the same for any of us – as she was always the first person to donate.

Feel free to pass this email along to anyone else that you think might have a memory to share and/or would like to contribute.

Sonja's S&P Family