Corrected version:
Elizabeth Meadows’ tribute to Dr. Susan Katz
Susan and I met 22 years ago and became fast friends. I am so grateful for our friendship all these years. From the start, Susan was welcoming, caring, and helpful to me. She continued to be this kind of friend all of these many years. Susan showed me ways to enjoy life beyond what I knew. Together, we supported one another in “enjoying the enjoyables” of life. In these past three years of her illness and its hardships, Susan told me that it helped her so much to list these together with me often: her adult children and their visits, many kinds of coffee, delicious foods and drinks, plants and flowers, including those outside on her patio (generously planted by her neighbor friends,) cooking shows, sunrise videos/photos that I sent her from the shores of Lake Michigan, and so much more. Susan was a lover of life, as Susan’s daughter put it so well at Susan’s funeral. Yes. I so appreciate Susan’s daughter, son, and all of her family members who loved and supported her throughout her life and especially, during these past years of her illness and its hardships. She spoke to me of you often with appreciation and love.
Together, Susan and I also shared and supported one another through the downsides and sorrows of life. There were too many in Susan’s life, and yet, she weathered them with authenticity, strength and vulnerability. I shared my losses and sorrows with her, and she listened with care. Susan did not dismiss or diminish my hardships. At the same time, she offered me helpful ideas. If I chose not to implement them, she had no quarrel with me about that at all. She was the loving sister I never had before; we came to call one another “Soul Sisters” often. Susan said it “Soul Sistahs” and pumped her fist. And after that, we did this often together and laughed, including in my last visits with her.
I am so thankful that Susan taught me so much about how to incorporate social justice into my work as a professor at Roosevelt University. She arrived there as a professor a few years before me. For almost twenty years, we conversed, attended conferences, supported one another in our writing/publications, and more. One memory stands out right now: at a conference called the Rouge Forum, there was a role play activity. The conference was focused on educating with social justice. The session leaders asked us to introduce the role play characters that we had each created. In a room full of people new to us, Susan said with conviction, “I am the daughter of a Black Panther, and my father always said…..” She proceeded to explain her character and her dad in clear and compelling ways. I was charmed and impressed by her bravery, creativity and gusto. This is one of many, many times when I was blessed to witness and partake in these aspects of Susan.
Susan loved and cared for my child and now, adult child, throughout these 22 years in very important ways. Zoe loved Susan, who helped them through times of hardship. Theirs was a special bond.
I have had to be out of town for an extended time this fall and winter. Susan and I stayed in touch with weekly phone calls until a few weeks ago when it became too hard for her to talk on the phone. I am so grateful that I was able to come back to Chicago for 10 days and visit Susan again several times in person. These were loving visits. Even then, while in hospice care, Susan showed her love for me and showed her appreciation for my love for her. During one visit when she was most aware, we shared our respective feelings about her health situation and about our long and loving friendship. This was very meaningful for me. I again witnessed Susan’s authenticity and life force. Thanks to her caregiver Jean, we ate a small meal together. Susan seemed to relish the delicious food, as I so often remember her doing in our many, shared meals before. What a gift. Thank you, Jean. I so appreciate all of Susan’s loving caregivers through these last three years. Susan spoke with me often in appreciation of you.
I appreciated learning during Susan’s funeral that a Jewish belief is that a person’s soul is eternal. I feel Susan with me now, and I will kindle her presence in my life for the rest of my life. In response to our loving friendship, I vow to use her memory as a blessing my life. To me, this means enjoying the enjoyables of life and seeking these out when it may be hard to see them due to life’s hardships. Living life with Susan ongoing to me means living life fully—its joys and sorrows-- with authenticity, strength, and vulnerability. It means caring for and loving people in my life with understanding, kindness, compassion, and with my whole heart, just as Susan loved me.
I am so very grateful to have known Dr. Susan Katz for these past 22 years. I miss her physical presence in my life terribly. I am deeply grateful that she is resting peacefully now and no longer suffering from illness, pain, or discomfort.
Rest easy, my Dear Friend, Susan, my Soul Sistah. I love you.
Elizabeth Meadows
February 10, 2024