Susan Jean Tormala

Susan Jean (Wilkinson) Tormala, age 80, peacefully passed away with family by her side on August 14, 2025
Surviving are her husband, Kenneth Tormala; daughters, Michelle (Jeff) Chenault of Grand Ledge, MI and Tracee Langenfeld of Grand Ledge, MI; stepchildren, Leanne (Michael) Besson of Milwaukee, WI and Christopher (Audra) Tormala of Chassel, MI; grandchildren, Nathan Langenfeld, Griffin Langenfeld, Ethan Chenault, Lucas Chenault, Zoe Langenfeld, Caleb Chenault, Emily Besson, Joshua (Jess) Besson, Elijah (Morgan) Tormala, Coryn Tormala, Seth Besson, Caleb Besson and Luke Tormala; sister, Nancy Warner; nephews, Mark Walcott and Mike Walcott. She was preceded in death by her parents, James and Ann Wilkinson; son-in-law, Pete Langenfeld; stepson, Eric Tormala and brother-in-law, Victor Warner.
Susie was born to James and Ann (McGinn) Wilkinson on June 8, 1945, in Reed City, MI. As a child, she loved school and participated in Cheerleading and Chorus. Susan graduated from Dansville High School in Dansville, MI. She then went on to attend Lansing Business College for two years.
She raised two girls, Michelle and Tracee, while working at Tupperware Corporation, specifically the distributor Gala Sales, for many years and made some very close friends. Later, when the girls were grown up, she worked at General Motors where she met her wonderful husband, Ken.
Susie's life can be encapsulated by five topics: Family, Friends, Diet Coke, Music and Puzzles. Her greatest thrill was watching her grandchildren involved in sports. She attended as many games as possible in a day including Baseball, Soccer, Hockey and Lacrosse. As you can imagine with so many grandchildren there could be 2-3 games in a day and even more in a weekend! She really loved to brag about all of the kids! Susie loved to do any crossword puzzles or sudoku puzzles she could find. She made beautiful scrapbooks for her daughters. She liked to paint, watch and discuss Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race and MSU Sports. Her nurses at Bickford liked to tease her they were going to replace her MSU blankets and shirts with Michigan memorabilia! This gained them a very serious side eye and vehement "NO"!
Susan's family would like to extend a heartfelt appreciation and a whole lot of love to Bickford Assisted Living and Memory Care of Okemos staff and The Care Team Home Health and Hospice. You will never know how much your support has meant to us during an extremely difficult time.
Services are Friday, August 22, 2025, 1:00 pm at the Palmer, Bush & Jensen Lansing Chapel, (Mt Hope Rd), with Pastor Andy Croel officiating. The family will receive relatives and friends one hour prior to the service. A luncheon will be held immediately afterwards. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that a donation be made in Susan's name to the Greaterlansingcarefoundation.org who provide services for caregivers of loved ones with dementia.