Susan Ruth Gelerter

Susan Ruth Gelerter passed away suddenly on November 27th, 2024 in Sacramento California, a few weeks shy of her 84th birthday, due to complications arising from hip surgery. Born on December 31, 1940, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. She was adopted by Louis and Esther Busell from foster care at 10-months old. She would grow up in the Bronx and Riverdale boroughs a cherished and beloved daughter who developed a love of Broadway theater and traveling—two things she would be passionate about throughout her life.

Susan attended Walton High School, a public, all-girls school in the Bronx; her favorite class was Music. As a teenager, she was a shoe model, working on weekends, and a camp counselor at the Nemerson Hotel in the Catskill Mountains during the summer. She started college at State University of New York at Oneonta, but later switched to secretarial school. Her first corporate job was being a secretary at an insurance company.

At 23, she met Gerald Herbert Gelerter on a blind date. Three years later, they married on August 27, 1966 at the Riverdale Temple, and honeymooned in Bermuda. When Gerald was drafted, they moved to South Carolina while he served at the base, and later she moved back to New York with her parents while he served in Vietnam. When finished with his duty, they moved to California, settled down in Huntington Beach, and started their family by adopting Jeff in 1971 and Mike in 1974. Later, when her sons had their own families, being a grandparent was one of the joys in her life. She loved her grandchildren more than anything else.

Susan and Gerald were part of the founding—and lifelong—members of the Congregation B’nai Tzedek, the cornerstone of their spiritual and social life. The friends they made there would become lifelong “framily.”

Susan worked for the IRS for her entire career before retiring in 2000. Gerald was diagnosed with cancer a few years later and she spent the next decade taking care of her husband until he passed in 2014.

In 2018, she began yet another chapter in her life when she decided to move to Folsom in Northern California and live at Prairie City Landing, a retirement community. There, she was affectionately known as “Suzie-Q,” immediately making friends and jumping right into the thick of things. She spent her time doing day trips, being active with a new temple, participating in the Welcoming Committee, playing Mah Jong, and going to many parties and events that the community would host.

A naturally gregarious person, Susan loved experiencing new things such as skydiving at 75-years old, going to the “OC Mega Challah” bakes, becoming a bat mitzvah at 77, going trick-or-treating with her friends dressed as a “foxy lady”, milking cows, and “flossing” in the streets of Monterey. She most loved spending time with her treasured family and friends.

Susan is survived by: her two sons, Jeff (Teresa) and Mike (Tammy); four granddaughters: Haley, Maia, Sofia, and Beja; and great grandson Tanner.

A memorial service will be held on December 19th, 2024, at 10 AM at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar, California, where she’ll be laid to rest next to her husband. To honor her memory and in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to American Cancer Society, an organization whose mission was near to her heart.

Her laughter and presence will be deeply missed.