Obituary: Susan Brown

Her primary occupation was as a homemaker and mother to her three children, Jessica Baxter, Eli Brown, and Desiree De Luca-Johnson. As a cool mom and a woman with a large heart, she also routinely opened her home to teenagers and young adults struggling with depression, addiction, and the other difficulties of life. As a sober alcoholic, her honesty and humor helped endless recovering alcoholics and addicts. When she was younger, she brought her creativity and dynamism to running her own diner in Montpelier, Vt., and growing an abundance of flowers for a wholesale florist business in Chelsea, Vt. As a young hippie, she also spent time selling candles in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and Harvard Square in Cambridge.

Susan loved gardening, dancing, music, and beauty — she introduced her children to Patsy Cline, Sam Cooke, Marc Chagall, and Egon Schiele. Susan also loved tennis and Roger Federer — she adored him for his grace and generosity. Susan was a robust member of an international tennis watching community. We know those friends will miss Susan’s presence.

The family is so grateful to Laura Chapman for helping to care for Susan, especially during her last week of life. Eli and Desiree would also like to thank their sister Jessica for caring for Mom for all these years and her hard work during Mom’s days in hospice. We must also thank Seth of Bayada Hospice and John Todd, her long-standing nurse practitioner.

So many will miss Susan, including her three children; her grandchildren Chloe and Vivian (Jessica), Josephine, Thomas, Ian, and Luke (Eli), and Corabelle and Zulima (Desiree); her son-in-law Javier De Luca-Johnson; and her friends Laura Chapman, Karen Miller, Dot Morrill, and Carol Keiser. The family knows other people were close to our gregarious Susan (she was a Leo), and we are sorry if we forgot to list anyone else who should have been mentioned.

We will hold a service for Susan’s friends and family in the spring when it will be easier to celebrate her life and mourn her loss while staying COVID-safe. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Planned Parenthood. Susan was a life-long supporter of a woman’s right to choose.