3 Sep 2016
You are right she was both very loved and very lovely. She lived her life with such generosity and courage and touched so many more than she could have guessed (even though I kept telling her!) But not just that - she was so funny and emotionally engaged and so intellectually smart.
And I can’t think of Sue without the deepest gratitude for her. She changed my life - many times. Academically she sat me down and taught me how to write an essay: literally this follows this. She also showed me how a smart woman my age could function in the world (we were both born in 1948). And her eyes filled with tears when I told her about my sister’s contraction of AIDS. I was a mature aged first year student. She then followed that through by encouraging me to focus my studies on the connections between art and death - a preoccupation that carried me through to a Ph D. She later prepared the ground for me to teach a Summer Session subject at UNSW. And all the years I was in a the same institution I watched her respond to others in the same way. She had that rapier sharp instinct for touching what was really important. None of those qualities would have had the same impact without her underlying sense of unsentimental compassion. And then she reconnected with me after Michael died. I have found the relationship with her over the past few years deeply moving and precious.
I met her first in 1990 - and I loved her as a person almost from day one. That beautiful expressive face, that extraordinary mind. I will miss her terribly. Always.