Melinda Sohval

In the early hours of Wednesday, September 18th, Melinda Haft Sohval concluded her battle with grievous injuries following a traumatic car accident. She was an incredible wife to her husband Bob, and mother to her two human children (Sophie and Daniel) and dogs Raffi, Wilbur, and Shumi.

 To know Melinda, even for a minute, was to have your life forever changed for the better. Melinda lived her life with a radiant warmth and a giving, kind heart which she wore on her sleeve. She forged friendships easily and naturally. A shared love of shelties or simply belonging to the same community pool was enough to form a lifelong friendship with Melinda. Melinda did not have an easy life. She was born to a broken home, and spent much of her childhood staying with her grandparents, Nanny and Poppy, and adoptive grandparents Millie and Seymour Kleban. What she did not have in her immediate family, Melinda made up for by assembling a chosen family of friends, relatives, neighbors, and colleagues. Her life was beset by significant medical issues. Melinda beat cancer twice, including breast cancer at age 24 where she was Memorial Sloan Kettering's youngest patient on record. She survived organ failures and multiple broken bones. 

 Despite the immense sufferings she faced, she dedicated her life to the Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam or “Repairing the broken world”. Melinda served as a Nurse Practitioner, specializing in mental health care. She joyfully committed herself to caring for those most in need. She trained her pets to be therapy dogs, and pushed her children to take on careers at the service of others in medicine and education. She actively volunteered, lending her talents to college mental health services and was always one to provide free medical consultation to friends and neighbors in need.

 Melinda loved nature and animals. She moved to Beacon hoping to be closer to both. She was an enthusiast of the arts, a lover of painting, literature, and musical theater. A talented artist, Melinda would give birthday gifts of hand-painted floral watercolors or calligraphed poems. She had an incredible sense of spirituality. She drew comfort in Jewish philosophy and practices, while also keeping an open mind to the teachings and traditions of other world religions. A lifelong reader, Melinda would devour multiple books in a single week, somehow still leaving time to enjoy her favorite HBO shows, such as Succession and Veep. 

 She was accomplished and intelligent, but never lost the common salt. She connected easily with her patients and fellow hospital staff members. She had an acute emotional intelligence. Melinda had the uncanny ability to make anyone she met feel like the most important person in the world. She dignified others no matter their health, wealth, or status. 

 We remember Melinda, her brilliant smile, her ability to take great pleasure in life’s simplest joys. Her resilience, and unyielding ability to transform her own pain into a desire to help others. Among her favorite songs was The Impossible Dream from the musical Man of La Mancha. Her family played it for her in her final moments. We can think of nobody who embodies the lyrics better than she did.

To dream the impossible dream

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go 

To right the unrightable wrong

To love pure and chaste from afar

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest

To follow that star

No matter how hopeless

No matter how far

To fight for the right

Without question or pause

To be willing to march into Hell

For that Heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true

To this glorious quest

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm

When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this

That one man, scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with their last ounce of courage

To reach the unreachable star