Shortly before midnight on Sunday December 13, 2020, at the age of 94, Suzanne (Sue) Betty Danforth Brozny Garman peacefully passed into her final rest, serenaded by Hubert (Hub) Joyce Garman, her loving husband of nearly 23 years. In the last week of her life on this earth she was gently and lovingly cared for by Dr. Randy Tryon and the staff at the Elizabeth Hospice House, who were extremely attentive and made every effort to ensure that she was comfortable and pain free.
Sue was often joyful in her last days and hours with her blessed hope in the second coming of Jesus and the promised Resurrection. In fact in her last two years she re-read her Bible cover to cover as well as “The Desire of Ages” by Ellen G. White, a book she finished re-reading only days before her death. She loved to share her faith. She delighted in the assurance she found in those books and many others, and in the worship she shared with her peers.
Suzanne was born on February 11,1926, in Mount Vernon Ohio, the youngest of the 10 children of Clyde and Agnes Danforth. She was preceded in death by her parents and 9 siblings, her first husband, her Son-in-Law David Carl Boothby, and her great-granddaughters Bailey Sue Boothby Vess, and Addison Grace Lessmeister.
Sue married John Frank Brozny in the mid-1940s and together they had three daughters: Firstborn, Katherine Jo Brozny Goodz, mother of Ryan Michael Gleason, and Erin Marie Gleason Moore (Jamon), middle daughter Candace Sue Brozny Boothby (married to the late David Carl Boothby), mother of Jon Edward Beck (Jessica), Kelly Sue Boothby Lessmeister (Bradley), and step-mother to Jami Boothby-Evans (the late Clay Evans), and her youngest daughter Rebecca Anne Brozny Finnegan (married to Bryan Michael Finnegan).
Her remaining great-grandchildren in order of age are Tyler Evans, Breanna Lessmeister-Vess, Lily Lessmeister, Jacob Beck, Braden Lessmeister, David Beck, Madilyn Beck, Emilee Lessmeister, Abigail Wallace Beck, Briggs Lessmeister, Sophia Wallace Beck, Luthien Beck, Wilder Beck, and twins Logan Alexander and Harper Lynn Gleason.
Sue grew up in Holly Michigan where she graduated from Adelphian Academy. She then went on to attend Emmanuel Missionary College, (now Andrews University) in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Later she studied at Hinsdale Hospital School of Nursing, where she graduated with a Licensed Practical Nursing Degree. She continued her education by taking creative writing classes, with writing being her favorite subject!
In the 1950s to early 1960s, when the girls were young, the family lived on the edge of the campus of Andrews University. Sue was a stay at home mom who supplemented the family income by making and selling the world’s best fudge. She built a strong customer base, some of whom good humouredly blamed her for unwanted weight gain.
While being a mom was her main focus, she eventually found it necessary to “work outside the home”. She became a student center hostess at Andrews University, interacting with and chaperoning the college students in their social gathering place. As the financial needs of her family grew, she worked in healthcare at Berrien General Hospital. She also was a news reporter for the newspaper in the town of Berrien Springs.
In the early 1960s the young family moved to Loma Linda California so her first husband could attend school. There she became an assistant girls dean in the girl’s dormitory at Loma Linda University, a place where she could take her three growing girls to work with her. While living in California she earned the distinguished but invisible mark of “The Kindhearted Woman”, and hobos knew that in her house was a woman who would be willing to share the food she had with a hungry stranger who had walked far out of his way to knock on her door for a meal.
Sue was a gifted gardener. She also had a passion for creating things in the kitchen. She often made bread for her family, the old fashioned way, and bread making days included nutritious whole wheat and white bread, sweet sticky cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, and melt in your mouth dinner rolls. There is nothing quite so wonderful as the aroma of baking bread in a home! Sue also made unleavened communion bread for church services. She loved to bake and decorate cakes and even made her own wedding cake when she and Hub married. Some of her other delicious specialties included canned applesauce, canned apples, and the tastiest apple pies from the back yard apple tree, canned plums, peaches, and pears, and canned tomatoes and green beans from her giant garden. Summers found her in the kitchen, working to fill the cellar with food for the winter. And always she was willing to share what she had with those less fortunate.
In 1998, after being a widow for some years, Sue met and married the love of her life, Hubert Joyce Garman and went to live with him in his home in Warsaw Virginia. Sue loved romance and delighted in repeatedly telling the remarkable story of theirs! With their marriage, her family expanded to include Hub’s children Donald Wesley Garman and Deborah Garman Kearney (married to John Stuart Kearney). In her new community she made many new friends and became an integral part of Hub’s church family at Carter Memorial Seventh Day Adventist Church. Sue and Hub shared nearly 23 years of married life together.
Sue was also a gifted musician and over the years played piano and organ for churches from many denominations. Her husband Hub loved to sing hymns along with her while she played. They had both a piano and an organ in the home they shared in Virginia, where she spent many musical hours.
Sue loved to entertain, and “visit”, a term that meant talking with others for hours on end. After she married Hub, together they had many happy gatherings of friends, fellow church members, and neighbors in their home. Sue loved to feed everyone and together Hub and Sue made everyone welcome. Extended family came from near and far to visit and enjoy the hospitality of the Garmans.
Sue was also a writer and a story teller. Over the years her writings were published in various church periodicals. Inspirational short stories were her forte, and she loved to take her life experiences and turn them into praise. While living in Virginia she wrote a monthly inspirational newsletter that Hub helped her print and mail to many individuals.
Sue had many lifelong friends. Her remaining 2 best friends from childhood, Evelyn Lutz and Pauline (Polly) Danforth were often the subject of her conversation and happy memories and she made every effort to stay in contact with them, even though her hearing was failing.
Sue also loved her family! Having no boys of her own, she delighted in her sons-in-law Dave and Bryan and enjoyed their good natured teasing. She was especially proud of all of her grandchildren and her grand-dog Balrog, and would often tell visitors and friends who admired their photographs “I started all of this!” Sue also loved and was loved by many nieces and nephews and their children.
In 2013 after a terrible house fire, Sue and Hub moved to Fletcher Park Inn, a Seventh Day Adventist Retirement Community in North Carolina, where she enjoyed re-connecting with some old friends and made many new friends. She never met a stranger and would talk to anyone and everyone, and so she loved the endless opportunities to “visit” and the social interaction afforded by the community. There she and Hub became an important part of the planning of the weekly Friday night vespers devotional services. To her it was important to include all of God’s children in the services that were planned, no matter what their denominational affiliation. Sue’s new North Carolina home was located less than 2 hours away from many of her grandchildren and so they had the privilege of coming to know and love each other.
In the end though, because of the pandemic and the restriction of visitors in the Hospice House in an effort to contain the virus, she was isolated from everyone except her husband Hub, and her daughter Candy. Her hospice room was filled with photographs of the loved ones that would have been at her side if it was possible. Through it all she held close to her heart the blessed hope of one day reuniting with her loved ones in the earth made new, a hope that she spoke of with joy to the last of her days.
A Memorial Service at Fletcher Park Inn will be delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing pandemic. When it is considered safe for family members to travel and mingle, a graveside memorial service will be held at Grandview Memorial Park in Rock Hill, SC.
Condolence cards may be sent to the family at www.jacksonfuneralservice.comor PO Box 945, Hendersonville, NC 28793.