My Sister Susan

Susan never did anything by halves. If it was worth doing, it was worth doing intensely, wildly, fearlessly – whether loving, working, or adventure-seeking.

She threw herself into each job she had, working 80 hours per week and then working at home for the rest of the hours! She was promoted as far as she wanted to go in each company she worked – only turning down positions when they took her too far from family – and she never sought a job – they always found her.

When she wanted fun – she chose sky-diving, scuba-diving, triple black diamond snow-skiing, water-skiing – she was game for anything, yes, a bit of a dare-devil.

You probably know all that, but you might not know - that Susan loved Christmas decorations – not Christmas necessarily, but the décor. Susan and Tracy’s house would have at least three Christmas trees, miles of lit garland, and every room would be decorated, including the kitchen and bathrooms.

Speaking of bathrooms, did you know that Susan loved low-brow humor most of all? Her favorite movie of all time? “Dumb and Dumber”. She was a connoisseur of the scatological.

On a higher note, Susan loved words – books, magazines, nicknames, calligraphy, crossword puzzles, made-up words, and greeting cards! Susan could spend hours in front of a card rack – she would read each one in the shop and buy dozens at a time. Susan was not the least bit mean, but boy, she loved mean birthday cards. Four months before one’s 40^th birthday, it was not unusual to start receiving an avalanche of cackling evil humor from her.

Susan loved

Tracy,

cats,

rocks - from gravel to gemstones,

lots of salt on everything,

acrylic nails - she was a champion back scratcher,

Chanel # 5 - her signature scent for the last 35 years,

Lemonhead candies - Susan was disinterested in chocolate except for maltballs, history – especially World War II and contemporary political scandals,

beef - she was a capital S serious carnivore,

Tropics in general and Hawaii in particular,

And gravy. Susan LOVED gravy. A bit of family lore has her drinking a mug of gravy once. I sort of remember that, but I do know for sure that you didn’t dare leave Susan in charge of stirring the gravy. When you came back it would be half-gone (uh, it must have cooked down?) and way too salty!

She didn’t have many dislikes except maybe pointless exercise, hair in her face, and most dogs.

Susan was fiercely loyal to her people, riotously funny, generous both with her worldly goods and with her love and affection. She leaves a huge hole in the world.

(Having three sisters, each of us was always one-of-four: “the four of us”, “all four”, “the sisters”, “the girls”. Growing up, we all answered to “Li-pa-su-sha” the generic Nevaril daughter name – and it usually meant trouble. But we never felt generic, we each had our own identity plus one other: the four of us. How can we be only three? We have not only lost our sister Susan – leaving a sorrow that will never be gone, but we have also lost who we have been our whole life – “the four of us”.)