Life in Rice Lake, WI: SB

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

SB

It's really hard to lose a friend, and I feel, it gets harder, as I get older. People who have been important friends in my life are getting older. Over the past couple of years, I have said sad goodbyes to several close pals.

Suzie and Dave were friends I met working at Coors. Dave was in Research & Development. His wife Suzie was a teacher. They loved cats, maybe more than I do.

Until we all retired, I only knew Suzie from a few company gatherings. After we were retired, and a few of us gathered for lunch a few times, I could see that Suzie and I had lots in common.

Once I moved to Wisconsin, we kept in touch over the occasional email. DB & SB even came to Rice Lake to visit me for an afternoon. Not many have made that trek, and understandably so.

Suzie and I started emailing more and more frequently, often times, we shared a daily exchange about our day, politics, sewing, cats, food, flowers, birds, beer, more politics, you name it.

I think, about 6 years ago, Suzie was diagnosed with a rare lung disease and endured many IV medications, nebulizers, respiratory therapy treatments. In the end, she had to use supplemental oxygen full-time. The disease was determined to be progressive. Suzie tried hard to stay strong through exercise & many appointments with medical personnel.

During the Covid lockdown we started adding the occasional Zoom live chat. It was fun to see them & their cats. It was not fun to see how Suzie struggled for each breath, even while breathing oxygen.

One year ago, after getting through Covid, both SB & DB ended up with bad upper respiratory distress and were hospitalized. I'm not sure of everything that happened, but David passed away, as a result of medical malpractice, on 9/1/2022.

Suzie carried on. Over the last 11 months, she has been hospitalized several times and rebounded each time. Living alone in Conifer was not easy but with the help of neighbors, friends and DB' s sister, she managed. She loved being home with her two siamese cats. She tried to do Silver Sneakers exercise classes at home to keep up her strength. Home assistants were hired to help with housekeeping & cooking.

Suzie and I were still emailing often but we also added texting everyday to check in on each other. During football season, Suzie was an avid Bronco fan, but kept up on NFL league news and she kept me tuned in. When she had to spend some rehab time at her SIL's house, it was not good, only HULU for TV, no sports. It was torture for SB.

When the Denver Nuggets made a run at the NBA championship, we 'watched' every game together, texting all through each game, often times into the wee hours!

Suzie would text me about watching all manner of sports, men's, women's, football, baseball, basketball, golf, LaCrosse, soccer...you name it.

I think she loved her Denver Broncos the most. She would forward the latest Woody Paige article to me to read. I wasn't always interested in the minutiae of the team, but I would skim so that I was up on the latest.

My last Zoom with Suzie was about sewing, the cats and what was happening with a coaching change for the Denver Broncos.

Recently, Suzie had a set back with her oxygen and landed back in the hospital. It was an emotional rollercoaster as she graduated to rehab and then was taken by ambulance back to the hospital and ended up intubated. I feared the worst, but then she rallied again and was weaned off the ventilator. Her body was frail, she had lost the little bit of weight that she had. Her strength was gone.

She knew she was in trouble. She told me that the pulmonologist did not give her much hope. She was too frail to be considered for a lung transplant, which might have been considered on a patient with fewer risk factors.

One night she sent me a text saying she hoped she lived long enough to tell me about the latest stay in the hospital. But, sadly, she did not.

Saturday, I got a call from Sharon, also very good friends with DB & SB, to tell me that Suzie was gone.

This email came soon after.