Suzanne Schneider Ross

Suzanne passed peacefully on December 22, 2025. She is survived by her children Cindy (Bill) Brusilow, Dennis Bala, Monica (the late Eric) Hansen, Chris (Gaby) Bala and Scott (Kim Graham) Bala; her grandchildren Nick (Kirsten), Sam & Isabelle Brusilow; Andrea & Dennis Mark Bala; Ceci (Nick) Hunter, Chris, Libby & Andrew Bala; Ally, Kimmy & Joe Bala and great grandson, Ezekiel Bala. She is also survived by her 7 siblings; Nick (Angela) Schneider, Charles (Sandra) Schneider, Paula Huot, Bob (Alice) Schneider, Tom Schneider, Nancy Lutfy (Jeff Guthrie) and Karen Cangelosi. Her nieces and nephews, and their spouses and families, were special to her as well and she connected with them often as possible in her travels. Suzanne is also survived by many dear friends, both near and far. Suzanne graduated from Wayne State University with a BA in English. She worked many years for Burroughs & Unisys as a technical writer in Detroit and Philadelphia. She also lived for a number of years in San Francisco and had many great adventures there. She returned to the Detroit area in the early 2000's to be closer to her family and if the truth be told, it was really to be near her grandchildren!

Suzanne loved to travel and experience new people, places and things. She flew to Portugal to see a Leonard Cohen concert, hiked the Camino de Santiago, traveled to India a couple of times for meditation and pilgrimages, imagined herself living on an island in the Hebrides when visiting Scotland, frolicked around Italy with her grandchildren and daughters, hiked the Black Forest in Germany and probably a few other places that the writers have forgotten! She was thrilled when she stumbled upon a biergarten while rambling around rural Germany. She traveled extensively throughout the US visiting friends and family.

Suzanne, “Grandma Sue,” was known as the “adventure grandma” and was devoted to all her grandchildren - for both big adventures and the small everyday things that make a difference. Andrea notes that her grandma took her to her first protest march, against the Iraq war. Ceci let her parents know that “grandma and I hitchhiked” back to the hotel on a visit to Toronto, when Ceci was 12 years old. One time on a vacation with Cindy’s family, she and the kids found an animal skull in the woods in Colorado, cleaned it up and brought it back to Michigan. The “cleaning it up part” involved boiling it and creating eau de dead animal aroma throughout the rental condo. She traveled to Stratford with Ally and found Justin Bieber’s childhood home. She organized and funded an annual Christmas holiday visit to Greenfield Village, creating wonderful memories - a great Bala family tradition that will definitely continue.

Suzanne had many passions including thrifting, Scandinavian crime fiction, British television, ice cream, all dogs, all cats, especially her cat Mookie, family parties & reunions, coffee, dancing, women’s rights, chocolate, Leonard Cohen, reading anything and everything, Motown, NY City, midcentury fashion and jewelry, the mystics, poetry, gossip, Patti Smith, Scrabble, dancing, yoga, Mary Jane style shoes, bookstores, and Faygo Rock & Rye. She enjoyed talking on the phone, talking in person, drinking coffee & talking, and talking to strangers. She was also known to deeply appreciate a stiff single malt Scotch. Suzanne was a proud feminist who began her activism in the 1970s, working for equal rights and more for all, as well as a proud progressive, left-wing, woke, liberal humanitarian. In recent years she advocated for peace through her participation in Pointes for Peace.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 25th, 2026 at the Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church, 17150 Maumee Ave., Grosse Pointe - 1:30 pm Visitation & Welcome and 2 pm Service. Suzanne's memorial service will also be available on Zoom. Please contact one of Suzanne's children for the link if you are interested in attending via Zoom. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church where Suzanne was a long time active member and volunteer.