Suellen Garner
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow the death of former employee Suellen Garner on Monday, July 30. She was 56.
Suellen, or Susie or Susie-Q as she soon became known to anyone who met her, left this world wrapped in the same love and affection that greeted her upon her arrival on June 15, 1962. She was the baby of the family and the source of much pride and amusement for her parents and three brothers and her two sisters. Suellen never lacked for company or affection, and also had a menagerie of chickens, rabbits, geese, and dogs to occupy her attention. The latter started her life-long love affair with dogs that included Bosco and Little Bit, her Chihuahuas, and her most recent love affair with her “adopted” Maizey, the toy poodle.
She was raised in Framingham, MA and moved with her family to Holliston, MA, Litchfield, CT, and then back to Framingham where she graduated from Framingham South High in 1980. Susie had a strong and fierce loyalty to her childhood friends that lasted throughout her life. Never shy, and between her boldness, quick-witted humor and brilliant smile, she would win over many a heart. The friendships that she developed were never more apparent than during her fight with cancer as her friends Kelly and Patty provided invaluable friendship, love, and support.
She loved living, her laugh was light and engaging and her smile bigger than the sun. Suellen said she “would always try something once.” And she did. Suellen began with study at Bentley University in the early eighties. Among her many careers, Suellen served as the Executive Assistant to the Ashland Town Manager. Suellen also worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). She joined WHOI in October 2008 as a Senior Administrative Assistant in the Geology and Geophysics Department. She was promoted to a Sr. Administrative Assistant II in June 2010 until she departed in 2014. She once enrolled in Southeastern Technical Institute and graduated at the top of her class as a dental assistant merely to prove she could do it, and then just as promptly quit and launched into a career in the mortgage industry serving stints with Sherwood Mortgage and Countrywide Mortgage in various roles. She somehow also found time to work for supplier F.W. Webb and as a loan assistant with Key Financial.
People often commented on Susie’s sense of adventure. Not surprisingly, her favorite song was Mustang Sally (and the woman could dance!) She was peripatetic, moving to the Cape first in the late eighties and then returning permanently in 2003 with stops along the way in Falmouth, Barnstable Village, Pocasset, and Osterville. Suellen liked to travel, and a frequent companion was her sister Lisa. It was good that Suellen did not go alone; geography was not her strength. Despite the nature of her work assisting scientists at WHOI, her friends there recall that a favorite phrase of Suellen’s was “how do you know where that is?” to which their response would always be “but how can you not?” Nevertheless, wherever she went, her smile and infectious giggle drew people into her circle of friendships and experiences.
Suellen loved quotes and inspirational messages, and her spirituality grew in her later years. Suellen’s yearbook quote was “Don’t fill your life with years, fill your years with life.” In her in 56 years, she was a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a cousin, an aunt, a spouse, an in-law, a friend, a confidant, a conspirator, an instigator, a ringleader, and co-worker; she was precious and precocious, shy and outgoing, haughty and flirty, maddening and hilarious, serious and silly, languid and vivacious, simple and complex and always Suellen.
She is survived by her father and mother Jack and Lore (Manning) Garner of Osterville, MA; by her brother Stephen and Karen (Dolan) Garner of Bolton, MA, her brother Mark and Laura (Welles) Garner of Bradenton, FL, her sister Julie and David Butler of Gilbert, AZ, her brother Brian and Nancy (Gusha) Garner of East Sandwich, MA, her sister Lisa Garner of Falmouth, MA and numerous aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews.
Visiting hours will be held from 4:00 – 6:00 pm Tuesday, August 7, 2018, at Doane, Beal & Ames Funeral Home, 160 West Main Street, Hyannis, MA. Interment will be held at 10:00 am Wednesday, August 8, 2018, at Beechwood Cemetery, Centerville, MA and all are invited to attend. A Celebration of Life for Suellen will be held at a later date. Further details, directions, and other information can be found at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Some of the information for this obituary is from the dignitymemorial.com.
