In Memory of Susan

I first met Susan Memorial Day weekend 1999. I always teased her that when I first met her I was scared of her. I’m not sure why, but that was my initial reaction. About a month later, we celebrated the Fourth of July holiday camping in Laughlin – in the 120 degree weather. We needed a food run and she and I volunteered to go to the store. I was a little bit timid to go, but I went. On the drive to Safeway, we started talking and we talked while we were shopping and on the drive back and in fact, we talked for the whole day – right through the fireworks. We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common. We both enjoyed scrapbooking and we both had brothers who were named David. That day, I stopped being afraid of Susan and started viewing her as my friend.

When I married Jason two and a half years later I knew that I had to have her by my side. I couldn’t imagine not having her right up there with me on such an important day. She was the first person – after Jason of course- I told when I found out that I was pregnant with Dillon. Susan was the person that I could tell anything and not be judged. I could tell her the good, the bad, the ugly. When I needed to complain or to cry she was always there. She gave me her shoulder and offered her advice when advice was needed. She gave me encouragement when I was down and celebrated with me when things went well. She was my person, my best friend, my sister.

I will never forget the day that she told me that her doctor thought she might have stomach cancer. We both thought that there was no way she could have stomach cancer, she had to have something else, anything else. I was shocked when I found out that she didn’t have stomach cancer but that she had Stage 4 colorectal cancer. I cried a river of tears that day. Tears because of what she was going to have to go through, tears for her family, tears for fear that she would not get to meet my first born, which at that point was a real possibility. When she was first diagnosed, she was given twenty-two months to live. She surprised everyone as she got stronger and stronger. Not only was she there when Dillon was born, she made it to his first birthday and then to his second.

Today, Susan was called home to be with her Lord and Savior. I will miss her terribly, but I am so happy that she is now free from pain and that she is whole up in Heaven.

At Susan's graduation from nursing school:

The two of us at Rockefeller Center:

At the top of the Empire State Building:

We went to Disneyland... a lot:

Us enjoying our favorite dessert at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - Berries with Sweet Cream Sauce: