Today I am mourning fellow blogger Sue from Elephant's Child.
Our first contact was sometime prior to 2013, on a blog that has been dormant for many years. I was drawn into Sue's orbit by her thoughtful, supportive comments and became a regular visitor to her blog. She encouraged me to start my own blog and we began an email correspondence that has spanned the years since then.
I will remember Sue for her commitment to finding beauty in the everyday and in the smallest things. It is an outlook I have tried to take on in my own life.
I will remember Sue's empathy, encouragement, huge heart, and generosity.
I am inspired by and admire her courage in the face of her debilitating MS and her more recent cancer diagnosis.
In a recent post, Sue mentioned that she hoped to be remembered above all else for her work with Lifeline, a crisis support and suicide prevention service. She was a telephone volunteer and I am very sure that she was already remembered with gratitude by the people whose lives she helped to extend and save through her skilled and careful listening and intervention.
She will also be remembered by those of us who read of her annual walk for suicide prevention.
Sue made that walk this year, in September, just days before her health began its final descent.
I don't know if her family will ever read this post, but I will put a link to it on her final blogpost. I hope they know how Sue touched so many people around the world. I hope they also feel our support as they grieve the life of an amazing woman. To her partner, her brothers, and her in-laws, as well as her real-life friends, and her current furry companions, I send my deepest, heartfelt sympathy for their loss.
Rest easy now, dear friend.
You will live on in the hearts and minds of those who knew and loved you.
Good on you, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteA thoughtful tribute.
ReplyDeleteI missed the walk this year, but I will be there again and now I will think of Sue too.
Thank you for posting this, Sue was so special, and I know we are all going to miss her.
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday, I'm planning to say something on my blog, too.
This is so beautiful, all the words I could not find yesterday are here, thank you. It's so hard to see the keyboard through the waterfall of tears.
ReplyDeleteWho knew that was her last post, and so full of photos of beautiful flowers in her beloved garden. I meant to mention her walk for suicide prevention but I learnt the news late evening and I was so shocked. Thanks for your kind words about someone who was much respected and loved.
ReplyDeleteSue was a lovely person, kind, thoughtful, a beautiful soul. So generous. When I couldn't buy Marmite here in Canada, she sent me some from Australia. She was a special lady and she will be missed..
ReplyDeleteI only knew of her from the comments she left here, but your words are moving and I extend my condolences.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Sugar Pine