another loss

 

Suzanne Holden Walker

a will:

to assert love,

to assert care,

to endure,

even when a father dies too young,

even when a husband dies too early,

to assert self

in a world that more easily treasures

the male than the female,

a world that seems to reward 

selfishness over intellect,

the tribal over the right,

her intellect, prodigious.

her sense of the right, acute,

a clarity to how she saw the world:

sports vital to life,

particularly football,

Georgia Tech over Georgia,

Alabama over Auburn,

and Tennessee football over all,

baseball came in a strong second:

many’s the Atlanta Braves game

she watched with her father,

with her husband,

with her daughter,

her daughter the light of her life,

her companion,

her fellow dog-lover,

the best of who she is

and who her husband was,

granddaughter to two amazing women:

Suzanne’s mother, Dean,

a conduit of the greatness of Kentucky women

to come down to her,

and her mother-in-law, Jean,

another woman who made her way in a man’s world,

and who, like Suzanne, would not suffer fools gladly,

Suzanne and Megan at Cabin on the Creek, photo courtesy of Susan Stephens

Suzanne loved to give help to another 

who was hurting,

who needed her,

her work with the city, vital for its smooth functioning,

the love she lived was boundless,

she found joy in life, in family, in her dogs,

in sports, in fighting the good political fight,

yet she did hurt,

and life never came easily to her.

by Henry H. Walker

July 9, ‘22