Judson Lake House Publishers

My Darling Auntie – A Life Well Lived It was just last month, on February 7^th, that I lost my Auntie Susanne, a dear friend and a loving mentor who has influenced my life in so many positive ways. I’m going to miss her smile, her laughter and her interest in life. Hers was a life well lived, so there are few regrets—for she was, after all, nearly ninety-seven when she died.

Susanne was born in the Molochna, Ukraine in 1914—the year that WWI started. She was only three and a half years old when the Russian Revolution took place. My father, Susanne’s second brother, was five years older than she.

Susanne grew into her teen years in the USSR and saw how the world changed from prosperity to devastation in a few years. She saw the beginning of the Stalin Era, during which as many as sixty millions Soviet citizens were killed by the Communist regime. In 1929, when Susanne was fifteen years old, her parents seized the opportunity to escape from Russia. They came to Canada with nothing but a small trunk containing her father’s diary pasted to its insides, some family photos and a few necessities.

When the Willms family settled in Abbotsford, Susanne had to work as a house maid in a rich family’s home, and contribute her wages to help pay for her family’s Reiseschuld or travel debt. Later she became a practical nurse. I imagine that her natural cheerfulness did much to improve her patients’ health.

Auntie Susanne married in the early 1950s, when I was fourteen. Together with two of my sisters and two cousins, I was a bridesmaid in her wedding party. We wore full length, pale blue taffeta dresses, which had full net overskirts—very much in style at the time. Her husband, George, was a professor at the University in Atlanta and so she moved there. Susanne gave birth to two sons when she was in her forties—she enjoyed raising her sons very much. I visited her there in Atlanta and remember Gerhard and Hans riding their tricycles up and down the driveway as Auntie Susanne sat in a lawn chair observing and enjoying them.

When Auntie Susanne was in her sixties she, Uncle George and the boys moved to Seattle, where Uncle George taught political science at the University of Washington. Auntie Susanne took a writing course so that she would be able to record the stories of her childhood and youth. I remember her telling these stories to me when we went to visit with her in Seattle, and there was often laughter in her voice as she recalled these events of her life.

Auntie Susanne completed her memoirs during that time and I found much joy in reading them. Because her father had been a writer and a published author, my auntie also had an interest and an inherited flare in the art of writing.

When she came to live in Abbotsford in 2008, I encouraged her to publish her work. I had the pleasure of introducing Auntie Susanne to my editor friend, Phil Sherwood, who helped my auntie to perfect a final version of her manuscript. I created a series of watercolours, which were produced as a set of sepia toned illustrations in the book. In early fall of 2009 my auntie’s dream became a reality when she published and launched her book—Susanne Remembers.

With the book in hand, Auntie Susanne spent several months with us here in the Fraser Valley promoting her book. I recall how much she and I enjoyed the book launch at The Reach, our local museum and art gallery here in Abbotsford, and touring churches and different venues, selling and signing her beautiful book. Despite her considerable hearing difficulties, she always had a smile and a word of interest for the people that she met.

In early spring of 2010 she had the pleasure of seeing her book awarded a prize—the Abbotsford Arts Council named it as the best literary arts achievement of that year. Auntie Susanne just beamed as we went up to receive the prize.

Auntie Susanne returned to Fredericksburg, VA, in late spring of 2010, to live with her son Gerhard, his wife Judy and their six children. She was with them until after Christmas. In January she went into hospital there, suffering from various illnesses. On February 7^th she went quietly in the presence of the Lord.

When I consider the woman that I knew, there are so many things that I have been able to learn from my Auntie Susanne. I know that, despite all the dangers, difficulties and hardships she encountered in her youth, she was always cheerful about life and lived with a sense of wonder and delight about the things around her. Her smile and quiet sense of humor touched many lives and we have all benefited by our close proximity to her.

Auntie Susanne will be part of my memories and in my heart forever.