SUSAN TUCKER STRONG

Susan Elizabeth Tucker Strong was born on May 12, 1945, at the end of WWII. Germany had surrendered, but the war was still raging in the Pacific. She was born in Rochester, New York and her mother, Virginia Tucker, wondered if she would ever see her husband, Machinist Mate 1st Class, Archie Tucker, again. He was serving on a destroyer in the midst of the Battle of the Philippines. Nine months later he saw Susan for the first time. She was a blond haired little girl who looked like a Tucker. This made her a favorite with the grandparents and the aunts.

Susan attended Greece Olympia High School and graduated in 1963. She studied at RIT but never obtained her degree in medical technology. At age 22 she met and fell in love with Robert Strong. They married and bought a house in Hamlin, New York. Sue was a loving and caring mother for their two children, Eric and Cheryl. Unfortunately, divorce followed in the early 1990’s.

Susan had a benign tumor removed from her breast in the early nineties. She met a new caring life partner a few years later, and went back to college and received a degree in Phlebotomy, her chosen career. Life was looking up for Susan Tucker Strong when signs of trouble began to appear. At Christmas of 2002 she complained to her parents about back pain. Her son, Eric, noticed she was having difficulty walking short distances. A physical exam confirmed she had a secondary cancer: bone cancer. Ever the optimist, she never told anyone she was “terminal”.

In early May 2003 her family knew something terrible was happening. They were notified two weeks before she died that she had been admitted to the emergency room at Clifton Springs Hospital. She was gaunt and scared, but told the whole truth about her condition. She spent two weeks under Hospice care, surrounded nightly by her family and friends. While keeping vigil, they celebrated her life at her bedside: lauding her wonderful sense of humor and her final triumphs that inspire all of us every day. Her dad and daughter, Cheryl, stayed every night to talk and laugh.

Susan died on May 17, 2003. Although the primary source of the cancer was never found, her doctors suspected that a small, undetected node in her breast was the cause.