In September 2019, I met a lovely woman named Susan. She was the leader of the U.S. Street Team for Poets of the Fall, and their biggest fan in the western hemisphere. We were friends online at first, and then met in person at Prog Power in Atlanta when we saw the band perform live. At the time, she gave several others and me three bracelets each that glowed in the dark, red, white, and blue to wear as a way of welcoming the band to the U.S. The blue one burst, which gave my black t-shirt quite a fancy look, but these two made it through both the concert and the Atlanta airport and have been on my bedpost ever since.
Susan and I kept in touch through the pandemic, and made plans to go to Poland in 2022 to see the band, but alas, that trip didn’t happen because cancer barged in on Susan’s life. Yet a year later, just last September, she had the strength to go, and so we met in Warsaw for an amazing weekend of music and friends old and new.
How grateful I am that we had that time together, for last night Susan passed away.
My friend lived such a rich life, filled with love, friends, pets, travel, music, laughter, and adventure. I remember telling her, and her agreeing, that she was lucky to have found her true love so young, and to have such a great family. We didn’t always agree on ideology or things in the news–in many ways we were polar opposites–but what we had in common made us friends, and that’s what mattered most. The first time I saw Poets and the last time she saw Poets, we were there together, and that will always be dear to me. True to her favorite song, she was, and will remain, cradled in love.
I’ll miss you, Suz!
zenzalei 