~ A tribute to our aunt by Lisa Lunt and Holly Houston

I am Lisa Lunt, Susan’s niece. She called me “Leelee.” My sister is Holly, known to Susan as “Holly Berry Bubbles Baby.” These nicknames give you a glimpse of the fun that our aunt, known to us as Su-su, spun in life.

Our mom, Jane, is Su-su’s younger sister. Our Aunt Annie is her older sister. These three gregarious and bright girls grew up in the Boston suburbs of Newtonville, Auburndale, and Brookline. Our grandmother, Grace, hailed from Nantucket, and was a nurse. Our grandfather, Ben, was one of the founding surgeons of Lahey Clinic. We have heard stories of skating lessons, biking to the club to swim and play tennis,and of living adjacent to a golf course, where much to the horror of a ball-chasing golfer, a mischievous Su-su once feigned death next to a rogue ball that had landed in their yard.

Some of the best stories and most lasting and happy memories for Su-su and her sisters took place on Nantucket where the whole family spent several weeks every summer with their maternal grandmother, Maria Folger Holden. Their standard poodle, Pierre, was a full member of the family and a constant companion year-round. We’ve heard other stories of the family car camping trips to California and Canada and Washington DC, and how they nurtured a love of adventure and sibling tolerance.

Su-su had a BA in Psychology and Sociology and a Master of Education from Boston University. She taught for a few years in the Cohasset and Wellesley school systems.

Su-su was working at MIT’s Draper Laboratory as an HR Specialist through most of our childhood and had a 20-year career there, leaving as the Head of HR. Decades into our own careers, we know now that Su-su was in that early generation of women who had a "career", as opposed to a job, and who stood up to sexism and discrimination. She and other resilient women paved the way for us and generations of women. To do that Su-su had to be tough and capable, dancing backwards in high heels. She always considered herself a feminist. Su-su loved the quote: “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

Through our lens as children, Su-su made adulthood look FUN. Here was a grown-up who tossed aside many expectations of the time and embraced independent life with gusto. Despite the job that sounded very grown-up to us, she was good at letting go of it on weekends. One of the high points of every year was joining Su-su for weekends away with her, sometimes in Waterville Valley, where we were enrolled in ski lessons in the mornings and skied together in the afternoons. Most of our wonderful weekends were in Boston and would typically look like this: we would be picked up at the Greyhound bus station, having originated in Providence, and were whisked away through the city in Lolita, Su-su’s bright yellow Toyota, to her apartment over a police station in Brookline. There we helped plan our weekend, which often included a combination of the Aquarium, the Children's Museum, or the Science Museum, Faneuil Hall for lunch, shopping in the wildness of Filene’s Basement, and ginger ales at the top of the Prudential Building. We crafted and cooked together at her apartment. Su-su was VERY good at making us feel like we were the most important people in the world for that weekend.

We also remember her as a magical and mischievous dear aunt (a trait she carried with her until the end). If you discovered a nest of remarkably realistic bugs & snakes in your bed, it was no mystery who left them there. She adored Snoopy and religiously sent Shultz cards on every holiday. Guess who showed up one Easter with live bunnies as gifts?

Su-su also made adulthood look exciting. Always welcoming a physical and mental challenge, she traveled solo through South America in her 20s. She laced up her sneakers and ran early on weekday mornings in her neighborhood with women friends, then ran 5Ks and 10Ks on weekends. She crewed in several Newport-Bermuda sailing races, rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, did a horseback riding safari in Kenya and summited Mt. Kenya (at 17,000 feet, Africa’s 2nd highest mountain, 3 x taller than any mountain in New England), rode horseback through the Loire Valley. She was skiing, downhill and cross-country, well into her 70s.

In 1989, Su-su married Kent at her family’s home in Chatham, MA. We were elated to have a new uncle, and she was equally thrilled to join Kent’s family of two children, their spouses, and five grandchildren (and now two great grandchildren!). Su-su and Kent made their homes in Center Sandwich, NH, and Chatham, MA.

Family were constant visitors at both homes, and Su-su and Kent always welcomed us. They loved to travel to visit family as well. We have memories of them breezing joyfully into one of our houses, perhaps just before a holiday, arms full of delicious food, maybe Su-su’s very potent eggnog, bottles of wine, table decorations, flowers, and more.

Su-su and Kent were devoted to and delighted in each other, both grateful for their ‘later in life’ discovery of one another. They shared a mutual desire to be outside more than in. Together, they traveled, hiked, skied, horseback rode, and cruised iconic coastlines on their boat. Su-su hiked most of the 4,000-foot peaks in the White Mountains with the Over the Hill Hikers’ Group. Her favorite ski area was Alta in Utah where on many trips she and Kent joined up with Carolee and the late Spencer Martin of the Woods Campus at RiverWoods.

Locally, she enjoyed cross country skiing at the Fairgrounds in Sandwich. Su-su was an accomplished horseback rider when she met Kent. She was delighted to introduce him to multi-day horseback riding holidays, and together they traversed gorgeous countryside in Portugal, France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland on horseback. Many of these trips were combined with visits to Kent’s daughter Pam and her husband, Chris, a naval attaché. As a 60th birthday gift, Kent gifted Su-su FairyCatcher, a gorgeous, experienced horse that was stabled with a Sandwich friend who was also a riding friend of Jean Nadeau here at the Ridge.

Our family has long been connected to Chatham, on Cape Cod, where our grandparents lived post-retirement starting in the late 1960s. Chatham was a great base for Su-su and Kent and their boat. For many summers, they spent about six weeks on the boat, both solo and with friends and grandkids, cruising between Nantucket and the Canadian border.

Wherever they were, Su-su and Kent loved sharing in experiences together. They had enjoyed culturally rich, social lives in Boston before meeting each other. Together, after they moved out of the city, they sustained their love for Boston in various ways, such as visiting friends, Su-su seeing her hair stylist on Newbury Street, picking up cheese at the Wellesley Cheese Shop, and attending Boston Symphony performances.

Su-su also cherished her furry family members. She was a proud “cat lady” for years and welcomed dogs back into her life when she met Kent.

Together they parented a merry band of beloved four-leggeds: Katershaw, Folger, General, Bosun, Nutmeg, all who romped and roamed the idyll that is New England countryside and woods. Riverwoods friends and the wonderful nursing staff remember Su-su and Nutmeg strolling the halls of RW, greeting everyone with verbal and furry hellos.

After “retiring” from MIT, Su-su didn’t slow down at all. She channeled her remarkable ability to make things happen in her communities. She volunteered at the Castle in the Clouds, a 6,000 acre estate overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. Initially Su-su showed up in her jeans, stained on the knees, with gardening gloves, ready to dig in the dirt. She expanded her involvement from gardening to orchestrating social events, another passion and something she did so well. She served on the Board of Directors, and she and Kent gave generously. Castle in the Clouds is now a National Monument because of the efforts of many, including hers.

Su-su also volunteered her time and organizational and activator gifts to the town of Sandwich, including serving as Chair of the library Committee and later as a selectman (she’d emphasize that she was a select-WOman). In addition to time spent giving back to her community, Su-su, along with her long-time gardener and friend Cath, nurtured a beautiful and extensive garden at the Farm where she and Kent lived. For several years it was selected to be on a local garden tour.

Let us not forget what a treat it was to be invited to visit Su-su and Kent either at the Farm in Sandwich or in Chatham. Su-su loved to cook and entertain. She hosted creative, themed dinner parties, with sumptuous food and beverages, gorgeously decorated space, and soft background music. Often these took place on the gracious and spacious screened-in porch of the Sandwich Farm, with dusk draping the meadows and mountains. She took an equal amount of care preparing a 5-star meal for her friends or her family. Her dinners were about more than just her love of cooking. She worked hard on them, and they were a gift she gave to the people she loved. Envision this: cheese fondue or boeuf bourguignon, perfectly prepared sides, a bottle of something special, and of course a chocolate dessert for Kent, all presented on a snowy night at a table sparkling with silver and crystal.

Su-su confidently carried on her family’s tradition that created fearless cooks–she never met a recipe she wouldn’t try. She introduced us to America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks, which fascinated her in their experimentation with all aspects of a recipe to get it to a place of excellence. We specifically recall Su-su’s emphatic recommendation of the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (using brown butter and a higher ratio of brown sugar to white). Kent heartily concurred that it was outstanding!

Ever keeping herself busy and challenged, Su-su was an accomplished knitter who loved finding good yarn shops and picking ambitious patterns. In her 60s, Su-su transitioned from knitting elaborate shawls and sweaters and learned the craft of making Nantucket baskets from an excellent craftsman who had studied the original techniques and was teaching in Chatham. Su-su created over 100 items that are treasured by her family.

One of the throughlines of her life was her deep connection to friends. As children we heard about her women friends and, as we became young women ourselves, we saw the value of longstanding and loving bonds with other women.

Betsy Whitmore shared her reflection of Su-su:

A remarkable woman; kind, thoughtful, clever, and energetic. We loved the festive dinners at your farmhouse.

Another friend, Prudy Van Winkle, writes:

I have been remembering the many fun times we had together - from delicious dinners and lunches on your porch or in front of the fire to digging in gardens. Susan was not only a thoughtful fun friend but also an incredibly able leader. Those of us who knew her are better because of her.

Su-su met a very adventurous woman friend, Marty, when they were rafting down the Colorado River with a group. At the end of a long and exciting day, as they were setting up tents for the evening, Marty called out: “After this day, I want a drink. Does anyone have anything?” Su-su piped up: “I just happen to have some bourbon right here.” They became fast friends who had many outdoor adventures together.

Su-su had an amazing capacity to make and keep friends across space and time. She had, and has, loyal and devoted friends from all periods of her life, friends to whom she was equally loyal and devoted. She was always open to the opportunity of making new friends, which is why many of her friends are people she met while traveling. And she was always prepared to put in the work of being a friend. She rarely traveled just to travel. She traveled to reconnect with friends and family who lived far away. And she called, and wrote letters, and sent cards, and Zoomed, and entertained, and invited. She thought about her friends and came up with ideas of what they could do together. One of the tragedies of her brain bleed and illness afterwards is that it robbed her of the ability to be a friend as fully as she wanted to be. But she thought about her friends and loved them until the very end.

In January 2019 Su-su and Kent were very pleased to join Riverwoods. Su-su especially loved walking the trails on the property with Nutmeg and admiring the beautiful surroundings. A year after moving to Riverwoods, Su-su experienced a cranial bleed that led to a slow deterioration of her executive capabilities. Among other consequences, she lost the ability to read, such a key tool for social interaction and stimulation. The decline accelerated substantially in the last year, and by last summer her cognitive abilities were quite impacted. No surprise, a lifetime of fitness and rigorous activity left her a very physically strong woman even in her last few months.

As I was with Su-su on her last day, I read poetry to her. I’d like to share a short poem that reminded me of the vibrant way that Su-su lived her life:

Poem - I Looked Up by Mary Oliver

I looked up and there it was

among the green branches of the pitchpines –

thick bird,

a ruffle of fire trailing over the shoulders and down the back –

color of copper, iron, bronze –

lighting up the dark branches of the pine.

What misery to be afraid of death.

What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.

When I made a little sound

it looked at me, then it looked past me.

Then it rose, the wings enormous and opulent,

and, as I said, wreathed in fire.

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