Susan Monroe

Hello everyone. I am asking for prayers, healing, divine support and maybe even a miracle as this is turning out to be the most difficult, tragic and traumatic week of my life. My heart is beyond broken as my mom passed away just a few days ago.

She had been battling some health issues, but things had stabilized after we finally got her into the hospital and I thought she was getting better. So this was unexpected. I am just sad and overwhelmed right now. So any prayers and good energy would be appreciated.

I also just learned yesterday my dog, our incredible 11-year-old mini schnauzer, Khloe, has what appears to be an advanced form of liver Cancer. I rushed her from a vet to a 24-hour specialty animal hospital where she is now. I am trying everything I can to save my perfect, loving, smart, affectionate and cuddle bug, Khloe. So please pray for a miracle.

But my world will never be the same without My mom, who was an absolutely incredible person. A great mother, awesome grandmother and gave to everyone without ever expecting or wanting anything in return. Susan Margaret Monroe was one of the strongest and most selfless souls I have ever known.

She fought through and beat breast cancer, life-threatening infections, twice, got three stents in her heart after finding out she had a 100 percent blockage, but didn’t have a heart attack, which the doctors couldn’t even believe, and overcame challenges tied to back problems and surgeries and always just wanted to know how I and my brother were doing and feeling.

She had to divorce my dad due to his struggles with mental illness, manic depression, and was a single mom with a teenager and a young kid, me. I was in the hospital a lot due to my Asthma when I was younger. And at one point she had to take care of me and also be strong for my brother who was battling leukemia. She went back to school in her 40s and 50s to become a respiratory therapist and later a registered nurse.

Mom never wanted people to make a “fuss” about her. She was very independent, funny, smart, grounded, sensitive, positive and just wonderful to be around. I know I can be too sensitive and I laugh too loud and cry too easily. But it’s because my mom always taught me that the most important things in life aren’t things, their people and relationships.

I will always feel like I don’t know how to be a “man” because I never had that foundational role model growing up, even though I appreciate the good memories and love my dad, James Monroe, showed me.

I know how ridiculous that sounds at 45. That will always be a void in my heart, but I have tried to fill it with the best that I see in my friends, the superheroes I see in comic books, my brother and the mentors and youth group leaders and pastors who I look up to, respect and admire.

But most of all, I filled the core of my being with the heart and soul of my mom. She taught he how to love, how to be kind, how to be supportive, caring and careful with my words. Growing up, my mom had to deal with an environment that was not as supportive and loving as she wanted. Maybe that is why we never had an argument. Ever.

I also had to deal with bullies growing up and that is part of the reason why words are so important to me. What you say, how you say them and, most importantly, how what you say to others makes them feel about themselves. So I am very much like my mom in that I am an empath and I try to bring those around me up with my words and deeply feel the pain in others, even if they don’t say a word.

As a nurse, my mom would always tell me how even though the job was hard, so many people told her how kind she was and that she would always go the extra mile to help someone feel better and show them caring and give them hope everything was going to be alright.

So I pray that all the giving, love and support she has shown everyone in her life is given back to her and magnified a thousand times over in Heaven. One of the proudest moments in my life recently was when my mom, as she was retired, finally started learning to go online more and read my stories at ACFCS.

She told me she was proud of me and didn’t know where I got that talent and that I would “use words I never even heard of.” She said I wrote “beautifully,” and you will never know how much that meant to me, even more so now.

In recent years and months, we spent more time together as our family tried to help her overcome a series of medical challenges. So I got the time to tell her in person how much I know and understand everything she went through, sacrificed and overcame and the incredible strength and resilience she had to show as a person and a mom.

When I would put the focus and attention on how amazing she was, she would most times deflect and just say: “Well, I don’t know how you and Jimmy turned out so good with all the crap you’ve been through.”

If you want to reach out to me or Jimmy, we would love and appreciate that. It would be great if in addition to sympathy and prayers, maybe you could leave a short note about a memory of you and my mom.

Seeing her through other people’s eyes helps remind me how many people loved her and how she truly did touch so many lives.

You could also directly message my brother and I through Facebook or my cell phone, 786-417-2766.

With the pandemic, we are still figuring out arrangements and a way to help family and friends grieve, but I am leaning toward a virtual celebration of life sometime in the next few weeks or so that we can share stories and tell mom again together how much she meant to all us. I miss you so much and I love you, mom