Elder Journal - Elder Castaway

Elder Journal by Paul Takayanagi

CASTAWAY SONJA IS CONTRA COSTA�S OWN!

The first contestant to be eliminated from the phenomenally successful CBS show "Survivor" was 63 year old Sonja Christopher initially billed on television as a former schoolteacher from San Francisco. It turns out that Sonja is none other than one of our Contra Costa County neighbors! People Magazine and other periodicals report that Sonja resides in Walnut Creek, not San Francisco!

In case you are unfamiliar with the show, which is an amazing feat since single segments of the program have been the most viewed television shows of all time with close to 25 million viewers for each episode, the premise is that sixteen selected volunteers live with very few creature comforts like food, shelter and tools on a remote island in the South China Sea for 39 days. They must fend for themselves, finding food, building shelter and most importantly of all, getting along with each other. The group was initially divided into two teams with eight members each. Every three days, a physical challenge is waged and the losing team must vote off a single member of their team. At this writing, seven people have been voted off the island. The contestants are from all parts of the United States but two are from California, a lawyer who really does work in San Francisco and was voted off third in the program and Contra Costa County�s own Sonja.

I was pleased to find out that Sonja resides in Walnut Creek making her departure from the show even more of interest to me because Sonja is one of three decidedly elderly castaways thus making them perfect subjects for this column. She was initially joined on the island by BB, a 64 year old contractor from Kansas who was the second contestant to be voted off the island by his younger "peers." And a 72 year old, outspoken, uneven tempered and former Nave SEAL named Rudy. Since Sonja and BB were the first castaways voted off the island this I wondered if there was ageism going on with the predominantly younger generations of the show. But the group made it fairly clear that Sonja was the weakest human link on the team. Strength and quickness of step for all team members are very important to win the many physical challenges featured on the show. BB was a cantankerous gentleman who made the stereotype of a stubborn, inflexible senior all too real. He kept saying he wanted to be voted off and if he had not, it is probable he wouldn�t have been so soon. And Rudy, bless his heart, has remained on the island to this writing, primarily through reluctantly joining the alliance of three other members of his team as a single voting bloc. After an informal analysis, it must be said that ageism was probably not the primary force behind the speedy dismissal of two of the eldest members of the teams.

In the People Magazine interview Sonja talks about her life in Walnut Creek and her 31 year old son, Dan Shumaker who is very proud of her. Sonja is a survivor in "real life" having successfully lived through a benign brain tumor, 12 weeks of chemotherapy and 37 radiation treatments for breast cancer. Fortunately she reports she�s symptom free of cancer. Sonja loves to play the ukulele for local Alzheimer�s patients, volunteers for other good causes and was an avid tennis player. "As a former athlete," she laments, "there�s a certain humiliation at coming off the island first." She had to swallow her pride, writes People Magazine, but at least she didn�t have to eat rats and large insects like her former teammates did after she departed.

I don�t know if Sonja will ever read this column but if she does, I just want her to know that as a fellow Contra Costa resident, I want to commend her accomplishments on the show and in life. I must agree with one national reviewer the day after the show aired who wrote that she was the ONLY member of the program he was interested in ever meeting in person. Ditto for me Sonja. You�re a role model for active, adventurous seniors!

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