A ‘renaissance woman’ mourned
Memphis yoga instructor Sarla Nichols dies at 68
“She wanted to live longer so she could love more.” Jimmy Lewis Sarla Nichols’ husband
Sarla Nichols didn’t see her cancer as an enemy in battle.
It was a companion. It was an “uninvited guest” along for the ride, her husband, Jimmy Lewis, said.
“The cancer inched its way closer and closer to the driver’s seat until it took the steering wheel,” he said.
Nichols died Sunday. She was 68.
While living with cancer, Nichols decided years ago that she would do it on her own terms. After two bouts with breast cancer managed with surgery and chemotherapy, she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016.
She went though treatment again, but when her doctor suggested another round of radiation, she was done. At the time, doctors said it had the potential to lengthen her life, it was unlikely to save it. The prognosis was grim: Her doctor told her she wouldn’t see 2019.
After taking time to mourn for herself, Nichols decided she was going to make the most of whatever time she had left.
She and Lewis traveled together. A longtime yoga teacher, she leaned into exercise, meditation and qigong, a Chinese form of exercise and breathing. She took long bike trips. She changed her eating habits.
She was determined to spend as much of her time as possible truly living.
“She wanted to live longer so she could love more,” Lewis said.
And Lewis had loved her for decades. The two had known each other for about 36 years and spent 20 of them married.
“For one thing, she was stunningly beautiful,” Lewis said. “And the second thing was that she was profoundly radical... I had never experienced them in combination quite to the degree that Sarla had both of those qualities. She was difficult... It wasn’t about trying to make life easy for everybody, it was about telling as she saw it. She was outspoken and radical. She flew against convention all the time, and I found that seductive.”
After nearly two decades of friendship, Kathy Fish describes Nichols as a “renaissance woman” and one of the most adventurous people she knew.
Twenty years ago, Nichols started Midtown Yoga. When she started it, hers was one of only two yoga studios in the city. She also started Memphis’ first yoga teacher training program under her studio. She later sold the business and went on to teach private classes.
When January 2019 arrived — the month doctors thought she’d never see — and she was still alive, she decided to become an entrepreneur again.
The owner of Midtown Yoga decided to close at the end of her lease and Nichols was ready for another new beginning, a decision she made after a sixday, 375-mile bike ride in the San Juan Islands in Washington.
She opened Cooper Street Yoga in Midtown Yoga’s original location on Cooper Street at Peabody Avenue and held her first class on New Year’s Day 2019.
Fish, who met Nichols at Midtown Yoga when she was still owner, said they got closer after Fish took the teacher training program.
“She flew against convention all the time, and I found that seductive.” Jimmy Lewis Sarla Nichols’ husband
“She was my spontaneous friend,” Fish said. “I could call her and say, ‘Hey, you want to drive to Oxford tonight and spend the night and go ride bikes tomorrow?’ Any trip, classes, she was always game for anything. So many people hesitate and have to think about it. She was just that friend that I could count on to always be ready to go do something and try something different.”
Over the years, the two talked business — Fish is also an entrepreneur. She owns a financial planning operation. They biked thousands of miles. They camped and laughed like teenagers inside their tents as rain poured down around them.
“She was one of my people that I could always count on to give me an honest opinion when I really needed it, not somebody that would say what you wanted to hear,” Fish said.
Leah Nichols said she was nervous the first time she met Sarla Nichols. It made sense. It was 1997 and Leah was the new girlfriend of Sarla’s ex-husband, Jackie Nichols. They were meeting Sarla and Lewis for dinner, and Leah didn’t know how the night would turn out. But that night became the start of a 23-year friendship that Leah said changed her life.
Sarla was the one to suggest Leah teach yoga. Leah taught for a while at Midtown Yoga and went on to open Evergreen Yoga on Overton Park Avenue.
But Sarla wasn’t just generous with her friendship and advice. She was also generous with her love and with her family.
“She was very persistent about getting to know me,” Leah Nichols said, who later married Jackie Nichols. “She shared her family with me and she welcomed me to be a part of her children’s lives.”
The impact Sarla Nichols had was probably most evident in the number of people who came to celebrate her life at a funeral parade held in her honor earlier this month.
“The parade was magic,” Lewis said. “Typically, a person’s life is celebrated posthumously, and they can’t be there. This was her life being celebrated while she was still able to participate.”
Nichols was cremated, and her family will spread her ashes at a later date.