I’ve been thinking about what Susie meant to me, and how much I’ll miss our phone conversations which is mostly all we’ve had for the last decade since she moved to Montreal. (So glad Vicki and I visited last year!)

We first met Susie in Berkeley where Frederick, Annie and me yearly stayed the summer. Friends of ours from Laguna Beach were visiting us in there and suggested their old friend, Susie, join us for lunch so we could meet. Victor had recently passed. Susie looked like she had been through the proverbial wringer. In spite of the circumstances We all enjoyed lunch and when we told her that our rental was up at the end of the week she invited us three to come live with her for two weeks. That is Susie in a nutshell, open hearted, generous and trusting.

She lived on Henry Street at that time. The arrangement worked out so well that we continued to stay with her every chance we could. She wouldn’t take money so we just took her out to eat a lot, with friends and without. We showed her off to our friends. Susie loved meeting new people. When Annie started Berkeley, along with my starting at age forty, we saw even more of Susie. We met Jack and Else and many other of Susie’s friends, later Chic and Nadja when Susie invited them to come share her penthouse near campus. That was a wonderful phase when we all would walk to campus and audit classes, attend concerts, and talks.

Susie’s lunches were not to be missed, always fun and interesting new people. I loved hearing about her socialist days, her Farm School period, and her life with Vic.
I forget that I never knew Victor because I feel I knew him through Susie’s stories about him, his photographs, his favorite jokes, which she could tell with the best of them. I could talk to Susie about anything and she gave wise counsel. She had many wonderful qualities, but the ones that stood out most, and were the rarest to find in a friend was her nonjudgmental nature and generous spirit. I won’t find anyone like her again.

I hope you have a good trip, Susie.

Kathleen