Amy M. Gussack

September 25, 2026

Delivered by Bobbi Whelan

Amy was a great writer.

Of course, being married to Kermit, the writer, she didn't quite get acknowledged for this gift. I wish I had had the foresight to ask her to write her own eulogy. It would have been a classic.

But she asked me to do it. So here's my best shot, even though I don't quite feel up to the task.

Everyone here has been on this ride with Amy for the past few months and seen the grace, the dignity, the determination, the will, the humor, the kindness, the patience, and the resoluteness of Amy’s march toward the end. We have all had her tell us by name that she loved us. And each in their turn has been able to tell her the impact she has had on them, thank her for the generosity that she ladled liberally over all of us and say what she has meant to our lives. We've been able to share stories, videos, picture albums, letters, memories, and most of all laughter. It’s been a totally unexpected, never to be duplicated, profound and moving experience.

We have been having a three month long living memorial to someone who was heading purposefully for the exit. I've been calling it a painful privilege--it's been such a duality of experience and I think no one here has ever witnessed anything like it. I simply can't imagine anyone else having this kind of impact on such a wide swath of people. We all know her slightly differently, siblings having the knowledge of the growing up years, friends having the benefit of forming a close knit circle of which she was the center later in life. Caretakers knew her as someone stricken with a disease who they came to know as a full person, a friend.

As a kid she was shy and insecure. As an adult with Kermit by her side, she grew in confidence and became a leader. She was an adventurous traveler and a foodie before there were such things. She loved Bruce (so much so that she chose to honor him by dying on his birthday) and Josh, and music in general, she loved beautiful tennis players, she obsessed over theater, Hamilton, and Ragtime and when she was in...she was all in. Passionate was a mild term for how Amy approached things. When she thought she was right she'd go to the mat with you about whatever it was. Smarter than most, and kinder and more giving than any. She was humble and would never have imagined she had the reach and impact that she did. She was just herself and mostly--yes, just mostly, not totally, someone who watched over her loves, her people, with an outstretched hand.

No paragraph can capture the fullness of a person. Amy was complicated in many ways and some descriptions of her will seem foreign to some people. Her flaws, her foibles, her failings don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. She led with the good stuff. The kindness, the compassion, the generosity, the curiosity...the love. And that will be her legacy and her gift to all of us. She has shown us a different way to be in the world and we can only aspire to get close to it. We will all carry the best of her with us and it will serve to make us better people. We love you Amy. As I said: you could eat the dictionary and still never find the words to say how much we will all miss you.