Woodstok, Vermont

Pia Stråhle Nichols died Saturday, July 10, 2021 in her sleep at her home in Woodstock, VT. She was 77.

Siv Pia Gunilla Stråhle was born in Söderhamn, Sweden on September 23,1943, the daughter of Einar and Lilli (Björn) Stråhle and the twin sister of Gunnar Stråhle. Her father worked for the Swedish Postal Service and while the family moved several times, the majority of her childhood was spent in Orsa and Leksand, towns that ring Lake Siljan in the province of Darlarna. It was in the cold waters of Siljan that Pia started her career as a competitive swimmer, which culminated in a place on the Swedish Olympic swim team. She swam for Sweden in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, an accomplishment she rarely mentioned.

Following the Olympics, Pia lived in Switzerland and worked as a nanny before earning a scholarship to Colby Sawyer College in New London, NH. She arrived in the US in 1962 to study, and through friends in New London, was introduced to Joel Nichols, a Massachusetts native who was serving in the Army in Albuquerque, NM. They were married by a justice of the peace in Tijeras Canyon, NM in November,1963 in a hilarious set of circumstances that featured a dump truck and a room full of egg crates, which they laughed about for the fifty years of their marriage until Joel's death in 2013.

After Joel was discharged from the service, they moved back to New England and settled in Woodstock where they raised their two children. For many years, Pia was the bookkeeper for Precision Concrete Foundations, Inc., her husband's construction company. In 1976, she opened Lofty Ideas, an antique shop in West Woodstock, which she ran for almost twenty years. After closing the shop in the 1990s, she worked at Mertens House in Woodstock until her retirement.

She was an avid skier (both downhill and cross country) in her younger years, who thought nothing of taking on Tuckerman Ravine, and taught a generation of kids to ski at Killington and the Mount Tom ski area in Woodstock. She also took enormous pride in serving as a guide in the Ski for Light program, which provides opportunities for visually and mobility impaired people to experience cross-country skiing. Pia loved to travel and she returned often to Sweden to visit friends and family. She was a born adventurer always planning her next trip, a determined genealogist constantly discovering new cousins in far flung parts of the world, and an extraordinary mother and grandmother with a gift for making even the most mundane tasks silly and fun. Hers is a legacy of resilience, kindness, and laughter.

She will be fiercely missed by her daughter and son-in-law Kit Nichols and Duncan Kuhn of Boston, MA, grandchildren Isla and Ian Kuhn; her uncle Nils Stråhle of Stockholm, Sweden; her cousin Roger Johansson of Sveg, Sweden; cousins, nieces, and nephews in Sweden and the US; and her dearest friends, Carol Cunningham of Woodstock and Jörel Stadin of Skellefteå, Sweden. She was predeceased by her son Lars Nichols, her husband Joel Nichols, and her twin Gunnar Stråhle.

Celebrations of Pia's life will be held in Woodstock and in Sweden at a later date. Pia cared deeply about those in her community and her family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Woodstock Food Shelf ( http://woodstockfoodshelf.org/donate/ ) or the King's Daughters, PO Box 765, Woodstock, VT 05091.

An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com