In Memorium

     My sister Sue, Suzanne Marie Outzen to use her full name, died suddenly on October 1, just short of a week ago. She was third in line, after Karen and Mike, and preceded Mark, myself, Paul, John, Phil, and Robert. Sue left for Southern California, leaving our Midwest home, when she was in her mid-twenties. She married, worked, had three children, divorced, and worked more. Sue completed a Master's Degree, traveled overseas, and worked for many years working for social services in Ventura County, helping hundreds if not thousands of people in need. Sue is the first of my eight siblings to die, first of my immediate family to die as well, for our parents are both still living. I should have known her better than my younger brothers did, but probably did not as time and distance separated us and I made few attempts to breech the gap.

     Here's what I posted on the web memorial hosted by the funeral home:
  
     Many years ago, when Sue and I were in our teens, there was a rare wild bit of fun when we were cruisin' the ones...but I promised her not to tell and I won't. Instead, I'll tell you about the more recent time we spent together in Oregon.
     Sue and I met up in Corvallis to help our sister Karen celebrate her sixtieth birthday. She was with me when I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and urged me to try my first bowl of clam chowder. Since then I have tried to replicate that moment, but Campbell's just doesn't come close. She was the one who had the courage to carry a cake with sixty blazing candles on it in to Karen while I stood by with a camera. The three of us made a pact to gather for Sue's sixtieth birthday, and then mine as it rolled around. Sadly, that is not to be, but Karen and I have decided to return to Southern California to see all the places and do all the things Sue would have wanted us to experience; it will be a living memorial, as Karen so aptly put it.
    I will always remember Sue as a strong woman who worked to make her life be what she wanted it to be. Her legacy will always be the example she set for others to follow.

     Thinking of how courageously independent and self-reliant Sue was makes my wonder about my own life. Would it have been easier, or more difficult, to follow the path she did? I know I would have been proud to have been even a little bit more like her.