Sybilla Sonoda, 73, of Amherst, Massachusetts passed away suddenly on Friday night, September 7, 2018.

She was married to Howard Sonoda for 46 years and is survived by her husband, her son, Alexander Predel, and her daughter, Soleil Sonoda, as well as a grandson, Maxim Predel-DeBuhr.

Sybilla was born on October 29, 1944 in Steinhude-am-Meer, Germany. Her father, Werner Olboeter, was a major in the German Air Force and her mother, Margaret Thiele, was the daughter of a furniture factory owner. Her father was a prisoner-of-war in Russia for seven years, which caused her to develop an intense interest in the history of post-war West Germany. She obtained a job as an administrator and translator for the U.S. Air Force and was assigned to a U.S. Air Force unit on a German Air Force air transport base.

In 1968, she met her future husband, who was a U.S. Air Force captain on that German Air Force base. After getting married in November, 1972, she spent the next twenty years living in Louisiana, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Alabama, and Texas. She taught German at a college in Alabama, worked as an administrative assistant to the South Korean military in Bonn, Germany, and was also fortunate to live and work in the American sector of Berlin, East Germany.

In 1992, her husband retired from the U.S. Air Force and she made the decision to live in Amherst, Massachusetts. She often declared that a day in western Massachusetts was like a day of vacation. Sybilla loved reading, especially books on the post war experiences of refugees. She took great pleasure in feeding all animals, both domestic and wild. She passed away as she wanted, in her home, with her dogs and chickens, her husband and her daughter, quickly, without pain and without fuss.