Suzanne

by susan

I met Suzanne when we were in the fifth grade... at Our Lady of Grace Catholic School. By the next yr we were best of friends. She taught me so many things...when the kids ridiculed me she brought me razors to shave my legs...I wasn't allowed to shave, and they sorely needed it...she taught me to dance and laugh.

Sue re-introduced me to reading, and together we read every Harold Robbins book we came across...we had the nuns take so many books away, and of cours we knew they were reading them all...we read "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" and so understood that main character...we learned together how to cope with molestations and beatings...she held me when the world was ugly...as the yrs went by we grew apart. I leaving home every chance I got, she staying in hers. I remember coming back home as a senior in high school and having to sneak out to go to the high school dance...I was still not allowed to attend that kind of event....you see, I had to go. Sue was hosting the event. The price of admission was a blanket. We packed over 2 hundred blankets the next day and sent them the the Indians protesting on Alcatraz Island...this young girl teaching me again...that summer I read "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee."

Once again we went our separate ways. I started life on my own and she went to Marquette University in the Upper Penisula of Michigan. During that time she lived on an Indian reservation and raised a daughter while attending college. She also took care of her daughters, aunts and uncles. Their mother was very ill and Sue took it upon herself and cared for the family. Sue graduated with a degree in the mental health field. While working for the state of Michigan, she ran up against the sytem. You see, they were putting her patients on the streets. She did all in her power to stop that practice, but ended up leaving the job. Suzanne once again took on the system. She opened a home for battered women and is still the caring girl I met way back when...

"Never let yesterday use up today."