Memorial Speech for Susan
September 7, 2014 ~ El Capitan Beach
I’m honored to have been invited to speak about Susan ... I was blessed to share so many facets of her life ... She was my treasured friend, nearby neighbor on De La Vista, fun fellow traveler, volunteer rose garden tender, and a soul sister of the moon ... Today, though, I’m going to speak to you about her as a writer.
I met Susan in January 2005, when she joined one of my women’s weekly writing groups, and attended faithfully for ten years ... When held with a spirit of respect and acceptance, a women’s writing group offers a unique relationship amongst the participants -- and becomes an intimate circle of connection, where we reveal the innermost places in our hearts, the divine sparks of our imaginations, and the landscapes of our dreams. These are the places Susan lived beautifully and naturally, and revealed to us through her writing.
I asked some of the women in her writing group to share their memories and reflections of her writing ... and I have woven them together to share with you ... the way we witnessed and knew Susan through her writing:
Susan’s writing is described as ... “dreamlike, mysterious, velvety rich ... whimsical, sensuous, graceful ... fresh and spontaneous ... a thoughtful slice of life ... sensitive to the smell, taste, touch and feel of her surroundings.”
“Susan drew us in by stirring our senses" ... the smell of orange spice tea, fresh lemons in a blue glass bowl, the salty spray of the sea ... her mother’s coral toenail polish, the foreign postage stamp on an old envelope, the slanted handwriting on a letter.
“She teased us with delightful details and dropped intriguing clues about charming characters, real and imagined. We were left wanting more - more details, more information, more of her mysterious and dreamy prose.”
“Like in poetry, there was superb flow that took us from one sentence to the next ... At times she would repeat a group of 2 to 4 words in a different sequence to add a startling rhythm to her prose.”
“Susan’s writing revealed an inner beauty that sparkled into her outer world” ... shimmering stars, the moon rise over the ocean, giant clam shells filled with sunlit beach glass on her wooden deck, her vibrant and tranquil garden, her serene home sanctuary … And always she wrote of her love of family, enduring connections, and the lineage of red hair.
This was all most enchantingly scribed in the ongoing, fictitious story of Phoebe, her spirited muse and alter ego, who wore red cowgirl boots, traveled by train to Silver Beach where she frequented the local Van Gogh cafe, and cultivated a deep soul friendship with the young waiter and poet, Rashid.
Like Susan, Phoebe was “The Keeper of Letters,” a collection she treasured and kept in an old teak trunk, the letters between her grandparents and parents, written on translucent parchment paper in faded ink, which contained a mystery that was dear to her heart.
“Susan wrote with a timelessness ... slipping easily into the creative realm ... she took us to exotic and far away places” ... to the mermaid caves beneath the sea, across dry and dusty deserts, and through the heavens on her magic tapestry ...
Wherever she went, whatever she wrote, always revealed the deep love she felt for her family and carried with her everywhere ... from writing retreats at Shaver Lake and San Miguel to adventures in Arizona and Africa ... always, it was her family, she carried in her heart.
One summer season three years ago, after using poetry for our inspiration and writing prompts, I challenged the writers to each learn one poem by heart ... (knowing a poem by heart ensures that it stays there.)
Susan chose her favorite poem by ee cummings, “i carry your heart with me” ... I’d like to close by reading it:
i carry your heart with me ~ ee cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Thank you…
with love, Janet Lucy
