In the night of July 14th, 2014 our friend Suzanne (Passirose) left us. Her daughter posted simply:
« Le combat de ma maman c’est arreté cette nuit. Elle peut maintenant veiller sur nous toutes. » (“My mom’s fight ended this night. Now she can watch over all of us.”)
Suzanne was a builder, a connecter and a friend to so many. I first met Suzanne in a bilingual online community for women with breast cancer. She understood the value of peer-to-peer support and wanted to help build the same support for francophones as she had found amongst anglophones. She worked hard to connect the few francophone women who were online at the time. But it paid off and she established an incredible community of women on SI-Fortes on Facebook.
SI-Fortes « Nous sommes un groupe de soutien pour femmes atteintes d'un cancer du sein (ou autre) agressif, avancé ou rare, des stades III et IV. Ici, c'est un endroit pour souffler, partager, échanger, s'informer, et s'entraider. »
Suzanne didn’t want anyone to feel alone. She was always virtually close by, providing information, support and comfort with understanding and sometimes with a sprinkle of humour. Her nickname on Virtual Hospice was very fitting – “pas si rose” – “not so rose” “not so rosy”. While she was frank and shared openly about the hard stuff, she knew it was also important to see the beauty in life and let the sun shine.
Ma chère Suzanne je sais que tu es encore en ligne. Malgré que le signal de notre wifi n’est plus assez fort pour recevoir tes paroles, ta présence sera toujours ressenti et nous réconfortera.
Merci Suzanne. On t’embrasse virtuellement.