Sue's Favorite Phrases:
Teamwork 'R Us
I'll teach you how to drum, you teach me how to teach
How long have you been married? Not nearly long enough!

Things I learned from Sue:
• Praise any motion in the right direction
• Ignore the errors because they will go away with instruction and practice
• Make helpful suggestions instead of saying you're wrong. Example: Instead of saying "You're holding the drum incorrectly" say "You'll find it easier if you move your hands like so".
• True happiness requires dedication and hard work, because happiness comes from working with other people mastering a problem, whether it be writing a computer program or playing a piece of music.

To master a problem you need:
• Positivity – you aren’t going to get anywhere if you say it’s too hard
• Persistence – the solution isn’t going to appear immediately
• Patience – the other half of persistence.

The fact that she was almost always smiling may make you think she sailed through life blissfully unaware of problems and untouched by difficulty. That's not the case: she worked very hard at making her life and the lives of those about her happier and less stressful.

She literally danced, sang, and played her way through life, but in order to do so she took lessons from the best even though it meant long drives, hard practice, hard work, and significant cash. But it was so much better than watching TV!

She was well aware of what she called her "immense mountain of privilege" -- being born in a family, nation, and era that gave her good health care, a good education, and allowed her to land an especially good job that sustained her and her interests for decades.

That job did involve a lot of hard work and long hours, and as a consequence she often got over-hungry and then just grabbed something from the vending machines. A sure way to gain weight, and she did. She tried the various popular diets, joined the Y, and etc. and would lose a little but then when the holidays rolled around it all came back, along with a few pounds more. She was quite seriously put out when a doctor put in his notes that she was obese. She hated that word! But there really wasn't any argument because she was over 160 pounds and only 5'2" tall, and it clearly wasn't all muscle.

Her co-worker, Roberta Issaris, had an office near Sue's, and Roberta posted her triathlon results on the board next to her door. Sue chatted her up about triathlons and Roberta gave her lots of encouragement to train and enter one. Sue decided that if she was ever going to tame the weight monster she needed a definite goal with a definite date, so she signed up for the Santa Barbara Triathlon short course. And she hired a professional trainer who gave her day-by-day workout schedules which Sue diligently followed. This was expensive in time, effort, and cash, but Sue happily put her all into it while still doing her job, dancing, and rehearsing and playing with the Middle East Ensemble.

Take a look at her photos of when she first started training for the SB Tri and when she actually did it -- the contrast is stunning. So stunning,in fact, that when we went to a performance her good friend, Robyn Friend, greeted me as we strode up, and then did a double take and asked "Sue, is that you?"

Sue kept doing tris because she enjoyed them and because they kept her fit for our hikes in the Sierras and elsewhere. She especially liked the June Lake Triathlon, long course, because it took her up the Reverse Peak trail where the scenery is just incredible. But she would be utterly wiped out by that long course, and the "run" would be a walk which I would do with her to keep her company. But when the finish line came into sight you could see her eyes light up, her step quicken, and her posture improve and she would sail through it joyously!

Sue had led the drum section since the founding of the Ensemble in 1989 and she really wanted to support Scott and the Middle East Ensemble until he retired. When it became doubtful that she would succeed she did her best to make sure that there were people who would take over for her: Mirra and Nan for teaching and leading the drum section, Nan for the concert programs, and Nan and Alex for the concert dresses. But the incredible fund of her knowledge developed through decades of work with Scott and the MEE, as well as all the other interactions in other venues, such as Middle East Camp in Mendocino, and multiple master teachers like Souhail Kaspar and Feisal Zedan for Arabic percussion, and Siamak Pouian and Mehrdad Arabifard for Persian percussion, and many others, is irreplaceable. We mourn the loss.

Sue taught the drum class all those years without pay in monetary terms. Her ultimate payment was performing in the concerts with students she had helped train and all the other excellent musicians in the Ensemble. When she would play with Bahram the praise she most cherished was when he would turn and flash a smile at her when she made an especially good improvisatory flourish in an appropriate part of the piece. That quick smile was far more valuable than any praise in words afterward.

My dear sweet, happy Sue, thank you for all the memories, I only wish you had time to make many more. And yes, we definitely weren't married nearly long enough!

--Dana