“See that building up there?” Susan Lisbeth Berthiaume pointed out the former Marine Hospital on Beacon Hill (now the Pacific Medical Building) to her children every time they drove south through Seattle. This was a frequent enough occurrence that her children grew up and repeated the question to their children, and told them: “that’s where your grandmother was born.”
Susan was born in that building on February 27, 1946, to her parents, Harry and Frances (Forrester) Johnson. Susan lived most of her life in Seattle, WA. She graduated from Ingraham High School in 1964, and got married at Haller Lake Baptist Church in March, 1967. As a young adult, Susan worked as a switchboard operator for Sweden Freezer Manufacturing Company. She was responsible for recording long-distance phone calls in and out of Johannesburg, South Africa, and over 50 years later still remembered the names of some of the people she regularly connected with. She also remembered being literally shocked by the switchboard on one of her first days and that the jolt sent her out of her chair! She described to her family with pride her experience of reporting workplace harassment in a time that many around her insisted it was to be expected.
Susan reflected late in her life that while she couldn’t pinpoint how she was taught this lesson, she was certain she learned in childhood that girls and then women were to be quiet, small, and not think too much about their own desires. Her struggles with both her place in society and her own mental health troubled much of her adult life, but she states she experienced true freedom and power in motherhood. Susan explained that her experience of birthing and raising children taught her it was possible to trust herself and her instincts. She never doubted the goodness of her two children or her love for them, and she felt certain that whatever else was true in life, she was proud of Jeannie and Mark. Susan felt having children was like the stock market in that you could have just two kids but then find yourself with seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren -- love that grows exponentially. She said that being a mother “is pure joy, indescribable.”
Susan had a mind for details, stories, and puzzles. She corresponded throughout her life with friends and family all over the US and in Norway. She retold big family stories of great-grandparents fleeing to Canada to avoid allegations of murder, but also kept track of the smaller hopes and disappointments that relatives across generations shared with her. Susan learned how to do crossword puzzles from her dad, and she worked through logic puzzles with her granddaughter. Susan spent many evenings solving “Wheel of Fortune” clues faster than any of the contestants and was proud to know many of the Jeopardy questions when they came on TV afterwards. Susan was very social and kept her mind active with stories and relationships late into her life.
Susan died peacefully in her sleep the morning of October 27, 2021, in Tacoma, WA. She is survived by her brothers, Craig Johnson of Hawai’i and Rick Johnson of East Wenatchee, WA; by her children, Jeannie Parity of Tacoma, WA, and Mark Berthiaume of Auburn, WA. She is also survived by seven grandchildren: Blair, Ashleigh, Zachary, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Trevor, and Izzy; and four great-grandchildren: Olivia, Gideon, Ryker, and Asher. She is survived by cousins, nieces, nephews, and neighbors who all remember her with love. Susan wanted her family to know that she felt extraordinarily lucky to watch her children and grandchildren grow up, and to live to see major changes in their worlds from the one she was born into. She wanted everyone to know that she was ready to no longer be in pain, and that she felt certain her love would continue after she was gone, and would extend to any future great-grandchildren she didn’t get to meet.
Susan’s close friends and family will gather to honor her life on Saturday, November 13, in Tacoma, WA. Her ashes will be scattered in Elliot Bay, where her family can say a final goodbye while overlooking the city she called home, and “that building up there” where her life began.
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