Suzanne

I met Suzanne for the first time about thirty years ago at a women’s retreat in Santa Barbara. She arrived wearing leopard print tights under a pink tutu. Jewelry dangled from each wrist, her neck and every finger. When she entered a room, you couldn’t help but notice her. She wore her flaming red hair wildly teased, and had a loud and raucous laugh.  I thought she looked like a Tenth Ave. hooker.

         Over the years, I saw her at different functions. She sometimes showed up at senior dances dressed in her outlandish style. As I slowly got to know her, I saw the kind heart and honest zest for life that she possessed. She made everything fun. She once joined an exercise class and decided to buy a bike to keep fit. She bought a magenta pink bike and matching magenta pink helmet. She rode to class wearing a bright orange shirt over polka dot tights.

         She started an “Overeaters Anonymous” group at St. John’s Lutheran church and insisted they have their meetings every Monday since most people start a diet on Monday. Suzanne had a deep Christian faith and believed that God wanted all His children to have fun, so she went about making that happen. She belonged to a prayer and bible study group and made religion fun. When her church decided they needed to expand, she went outside and shoveled up a bucket of dirt and plopped it on the pastor’s desk.

         “This is where we begin…with this dirt. Let’s pray over it.” she said.

         Suzanne volunteered in many local charities. She often dressed up like Raggedy Ann and visited care facilities where she made the elderly and lonely laugh at her antics. She volunteered to paint scenery at a local live theater and wrote “secret messages” somewhere in the scenery. She told the cast to look for them.  They all took part in finding the “secret messages,” usually sayings like “God loves you,” or “you matter.”

On Halloween, her favorite holiday, she decorated every room in her house, even the bathroom. Witches, pumpkins and skeletons hung from the ceilings and adorned the furniture. Every year she held a “witch’s brew” luncheon for many of her women friends.  I felt privileged to get invited. She made the basic stock and everyone brought a cup full of cooked vegetables to add to the pot. She provided crusty bread with the soup and dessert and coffee afterward. The soup always tasted delicious and we used the cup we brought to serve ourselves…less cleanup for the hostess. She dressed in a different costume every year and encouraged everyone else to come in costume. 

For their 40^th anniversary, Suzanne had a new wedding ring made for her husband and invited him to meet her at a little chapel in northern California. She had a friend strew rose pedals around the altar before they got there. When she and Tim arrived, Suzanne opened the small ring box and presented it to Tim. Then she proposed.

“Will you marry me again?’

“Of course,” Tim said.

They renewed their vows and danced to their favorite song…“only you,” right there in the chapel among the rose petals.

That about sums up Suzanne. She always looked for ways to bring happiness to those she loved and joy to the stranger she just met.

A few years ago, Suzanne was diagnosed with leukemia and went through a series of chemo-therapy in L.A. She kept her good spirits up through her illness and never complained…ever. She soon went into remission. Everyone rejoiced at the good news. But alas, the cancer returned with a vengeance, and she went through another round of chemo. The treatment did little good and she and Tim made the decision to stop all treatment in early Sept. She had fought the good fight and was ready to “dance with Jesus.” She passed on Oct. 1^st, 2015.

I attended her memorial the following Friday. The packed church had all available seats occupied and people stood in the vestibule and front entrance. A fitting good-bye to a person who touched so many lives.