Shirin Sondhi

She also leaves behind daughters Amrita Sondhi of Bowen Island, Geeta Sondhi of Toronto (Lance et al), son Vijay Sondhi of San Francisco (Sona), grandchildren Anisa and Indira and friend and caregiver Reza Bedonia.

The ninth of ten children, Shirin was born to Maniben and Mohamedally Rattansi in a humble home in Nyeri at the foothills of Mount Kenya. Here, her father, a self-made businessman and budding philanthropist, built a school before moving the family to Nairobi where Shirin spent her early years in the complexity of a racially stratified colonial society. After completing her primary education at the Aga Khan school in Nairobi, she was sent to England for her secondary at St. Michael’s School, Sussex, UK. Then, upon advice from prominent people, Shirin and her younger sister Zarina were enrolled at The Club of the Three Wise Monkeys, "London's most exclusive' finishing school" - during wartime.

Upon her return to Kenya in 1951, Shirin met a wordly, debonair, mustachioed young man who wanted to marry her. But she was of the Gujurati, Ismaili-Muslim community and he a Punjabi, Hindu/Sikh. Determined to follow her heart, for love and for principle, and under threat of preventing her sisters from ever getting married, she defied her parents and all prevailing norms. She bought a boat ticket and fled to England. There she worked in a nursery school for meagre wages and lived in a bed-sit until a family friend convinced her father to fund ongoing studies for the daughter he had nicknamed "our Jhansi ki Rani". Shirin chose photography - at the Ealing School of Art in London - became an exhibiting member of the august Royal Photographic Society and learned to fly a plane, completing a solo flight. Shirin was also famously an excellent motorcar driver and sped along the murram roads of East Africa and the Belgian Congo.

Shirin returned to Kenya in 1958. She had many suitors but there was only one she wanted to marry. He again proposed. While still controversial, opposition to their union had simmered. On December thirteenth, 1958, six years after their epic courtship began, Jagdish and Shirin Sondhi were finally married in Mombasa in a civil ceremony, followed by a party at the illustrious Sondhi family home. After the birth of her three children, Shirin gave up photography as a career to raise her children and to assist her husband, Jagdish, in establishing a successful career as a Consulting Civil-Structural Engineer. She also supported him in his political and social work.

Shirin traveled the world with Jagdish during his tenure as an International Director of Lions Clubs International. In 1970, Jagdish and Shirin visited their long-time family friends, Ram Hira, a former Mombasa lawyer, and his wife Nimmu, in Vancouver, Canada. In 1973, Shirin and Jagdish moved their family to Canada.

In North Vancouver, Shirin lost no time getting involved in the community. She established a series of evening Indian cooking classes, helped to resettle two refugee families, and to helm a centre for children with disabilities. Shirin was also a founding member of the Vancouver photographic society. After her children left home, Shirin assisted Jagdish for a second time to establish a new career running the family's Logistics company in Kenya after taking care of his parents in their final years.

Shirin was loved by a large, extended family of relatives and friends around the world. She was admired for her strength, her extraordinary kindness and her appreciation of art and beauty. Shirin lived a full life. May she be blessed for all that she did for her family and for others. And may Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Honey and her extraordinary team at Lions Gate Hospital be blessed for all they did for Shirin and Jagdish in their time of need.

A Celebration of Life will be held at the Hollyburn Funeral Home at 1807 Marine Drive, West Vancouver, on Friday, May 10th, 2024 at 1:00 pm "No gifts or flowers please."