Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 30 May 2017
A sister uses her gifts to send messages to fallen soldier

MARTHA IRVINE from the war. He hadn’t
AP National Writer been able to offer much
NEENAH, Wis. (AP) — She support when Jon died,
begins each time by sharp- he said, but things had
ening her tools, with the changed for him in recent
sound of metal on metal years.
echoing through the sunlit Now the head of a non-
old house she calls both profit arts organization for
home and workshop. Mak- veterans, called Warrior
ing a violin is a methodical Songs, Moon asked Sonja if
art. For Sonja St. John, that she’d be interested in help-
structure is a necessity — ing create a song for his
and the routine, in many group’s second album. This
ways, a saving grace. one will focus on telling the
“It’s a way to stay on track stories of women in com-
even when chaos can be bat, as well as the mothers,
happening right outside,” wives and sisters who’ve
she says. She finishes each lost loved ones to war.
new violin with another ritu- The Warrior Songs CDs are
al, by gluing a small, hand- given free of charge to
written message inside. This veterans and are intended
began as a light gesture, to be a source of support
with favorite fortunes from Violins hang in the workshop in Sonja St. John’s Neenah, Wis., home on Monday, May 8, 2017. Her and healing.
cookies placed inside with brother, Jon St. John died in 2007 in the Iraq war. Among other things, Sonja has found solace in In honoring Jon — and tell-
a wink as hidden signa- her career, making and restoring violins. ing her own story — Sonja,
tures of sorts from her, the Associated Press now 33, also saw a chance
violin maker. But the notes to move forward and to
she leaves now have be- beginning her career after friend to have around,” she hab more than once. stay sober.
come far more personal graduating from the Chi- said, noting how music had “I was very sick for quite a “I just really woke up when
and meaningful. cago School of Violin Mak- always been a bonding long time,” she said. I realized I know that my
Each is different, but they ing. She has a vivid memo- point for them. He’d teach Her grandmother had died brother was willing to die
are often a tribute to those ry of sliding to her kitchen her about his favorite rock of heart problems shortly for me and our country,”
bands. She introduced him after Jon’s death but, as she said. “I better be will-
to jazz violin. Sonja saw it, she really died ing to live and take advan-
But in the years after his of heartache. Truth was, tage of what I DO have.”
death, Sonja stopped play- her own heart also had She agreed to play a violin
ing, as grief enveloped her. been broken for years. solo for the song and soon
She got married in 2008 Then, last fall, she received began practicing again.
and divorced seven years a note from Jason Moon, She also began building a
later. After moving back a musician and himself an new violin, work she’d set
to Neenah, her Wisconsin Iraq war veteran whom aside to focus on instru-
hometown, to be near her she’d first met as a teen- ment repair.
parents, she increasingly ager, when they played This winter, Moon recorded
tried to drown that grief music together. Moon had an interview with Sonja,
with alcohol, so much so had his own struggles, with and she gave him some of
that she checked into re- PTSD, after coming home her journal entries.q

Violins hang in the workshop in Sonja St. John’s Neenah, Wis.,
home on Monday, May 8, 2017.
Associated Press

who’ve given of them- floor, her back against the
selves in some way, mem- cupboards, when her par-
bers of the military includ- ents shared the news in a
ed. Her most recent one phone call.
reads: “In honor of past, This was her big brother, her
present and future souls of fishing buddy and protec-
courage and wisdom.” tor, tall and strong-willed
The person foremost on her but also kind in sometimes
mind when she writes those surprising ways. Her favorite
messages is her brother, photo of the two of them
Jon St. John, an Army spe- together was taken at one
cialist who died a decade of her violin recitals in 2002.
ago when a roadside He’d come home from col-
bomb exploded near the lege, wearing what she fig-
military vehicle in which he ures was probably his nic-
was the gunner. est sweater, and brought
Jon, Sonja’s only sibling, her flowers. Sonja St. John plays violin during a recording session on Saturday, May 13, 2017, at Surroundin-
SoundStudio in Wauwatosa, Wis.
was 25. She was 22 and just “He was just always a good Associated Press