Susanna Richards Obituary

Name: Memorial Gathering for Susanna Richards
Start: 2024-05-24T16:00:00.000Z
End: 2024-05-24T17:00:00.000Z
Location: Ingling Williams & Lewis Funeral Home - South Charleston

Richards (Grisso), Susanna E.

RICHARDS, Susanna E. (Grisso), age 82 of South Charleston, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at Vancrest of New Carlisle. She was born on September 2, 1941 to the late Daniel and Ruth (Smucker) Grisso in Ottawa, Ohio. In addition to her parents Susan was preceded in death by her sister, Barbara Grisso, brother, Philip Grisso and her two beloved pets, Prince Jehu Richards and Cheyenne Marie Brewer. She leaves behind her loving son, David (Carrie) Richards; sister, Janice Brewer; sister-in-law, Linda Grisso; nieces: Julie (Dave) Recker and Jenny Brewer; nephews: Jimmy Brewer and Jerrod Brewer along with many extended family members including nieces, nephews and cousins. Susan was a Certified Nursing Assistant at the IOOF Home in Springfield for 20 years and loved to read Amish romance novels. She was an avid fan of the Denver Broncos and Michigan State University Basketball. Susan will be sadly missed by those who knew her. A gathering of friends and family will be held on Friday, May 24, 2024 from 12:00-1:00 p.m. at Ingling Williams & Lewis Funeral Home, South Charleston with a celebration of her life beginning at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to SICSA Pet Adoption & Wellness Center in Susan's honor. Condolences are forwarded to the family by visiting www.jacksonlytle.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Springfield News Sun on May 19, 2024.

Memories and Condolences
for Susanna Richards

Sponsored by Ingling Williams & Lewis Funeral Home - South Charleston.

2 Entries

Carrie Richards

June 14, 2024

Susan loved goats, Arkansas football, and everything Amish, especially cookbooks. She always asked me to look out for church recipe books when I went to garage sales, and she would add them to her impressive collection. She enjoyed browsing through the several hundred cookbooks she'd picked up as souvenirs from places she'd visited, or bought on trips to Barnes & Noble with Dave, or been given as gifts. And, like her father before her, she dutifully wrote the date and where each book came from inside every cover.

She treasured her friends, and she had so, so many of them, spread all over the country, everywhere she had lived or visited. She loved to write letters and send cards to them, talk on the phone with them for hours, and see them whenever she could. For Susan there truly were no strangers, only friends she hadn't met yet. Dave told me she would light up any room, and he's right. Susan was a huge personality in a deceptively tiny body.

Beyond her countless friends, she adored her extended family. She loved spending time with her sister Janice, and she doted on her nieces and nephews, on their kids, and on their pets. She positively glowed when she talked about them.

But her pride and joy was her only child, Dave. Through all the celebrations and tragedies of their lives, the bond between Susan and Scott (if you know her, you know) never wavered.

She called Dave every evening at 6:40. Goldie, Susan's beloved cat granddaughter, would be lurking nearby waiting for the phone to ring; Goldie knew that when Grandma called, Dave would toss "grandma treats" to Goldie and her adopted brother Spencer. Susan was tickled when she could hear the cats talking or playing during those calls, almost as much as she enjoyed seeing them or their doggy cousins in person.

Susan was an adventurer at heart. Even as she grew in years, she thought nothing of hopping on a plane (or helicopter), exploring a new city, trying new activities, and learning new things. Colorado was her home at heart, and over the years she must have had a dozen or more photos taken at Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods.

There are so many more details that I want to remember about her. She loved holiday meals with her family, and would sneak baked corn onto her plate when Dave wasn't looking; if you caught her, she would gaze back at you with a glint in her eye and almost-smile, a playfully defiant, ornery expression that was uniquely Susan's. She never stopped missing her brother, and talked about him often. She shared her cooking magazines with me, and sometimes she bought one that she didn't even like because she knew I would enjoy it; isn't that just the epitome of her small acts of kindness? She loved to shop from catalogs, and never met a new blouse or piece of cookware that she didn't like. She had an amazing ability to be grumpy and silly and happy, all at the same time. She had fun being sneaky with gift-giving. Der Dutchman was hands-down her favorite restaurant, but even more, she marveled at Dave's cooking when he learned to make authentic Detroit-style pizza. Every summer she looked forward to buying canned beets from her farmer friend at the Second Street Market.

So many things she did, and believed, and liked, and disliked for sometimes hard to understand reasons (I'm looking at you, Betty White). Susan wasn't just a spectator in this world: she had ideas and opinions, she LIVED her life, and she brought us along for the ride.

All in all, it was an excellent ride. Thank you, Susan, for letting me be a part of it.