She Wore Platform Shoes and Drove a Gold Beetle

It was the 1970's. Her name was Sue. My mother called her Sues. I thought she was the coolest. She dated my older brother for a while...and even after their romance ended, she still came by the house. This time to visit my mother. My mother took her under her wing so to speak. Sue was a pretty emotionally damaged young woman. (Her mother had committed suicide when Sue was in her early teens.) My mother became a second mother to her. She would talk for hours with Mom; drinking coffee and smoking. Sometimes she would cry on Mom's shoulder. Mom loved and encouraged her. She also loved Mom back...sometimes driving her to stores or to a doctor's appointment. One time she drove to my school to pick me up at the nurse's office becaue I was sick. (Dad worked and my mother never had a driver's liscence)

I liked her a lot. I was young...probably only about 7 or 8. I thought Sue was pretty. She was nice and paid attention to me and my sisters. She always signed her name with a little picture of a bear. She wore really cool platform shoes...and she drove the coolest gold volkswagon. Once in a while she gave me a ride in it. I always planned on having a car just like it when I grew up. She smoked. I remember trying to convince her to quit. I encouraged her to chew gum instead. When she came over for a visit, I would pester her with questions about her progress in quitting. I probably drove her crazy, but eventually she did quit, I'm pretty pleased to say! She told me that chewing gum helped.

She was crazy about my brother Dan and I often wondered why he had broken it off with her. But she married Mike...and I think it was a much better fit. After she and Mike got married, I remember visiting her at their new apartment in Penfield and seeing her new baby boy. Later she had a girl. A few years after my brother passed away, she and Mike had another baby boy, which they named Daniel...after my brother.

Sue eventually worked through the pain of her life and came to know the Lord. I think my mother was largely instrumental in this. You know why? Because Jesus stuck out of my mother. That's why. I know Sue still lives in Webster...and I wonder how she's doing. I haven't seen her in about 14 years. Maybe I'll look her up and ask her if I can come over for coffee (without the cigarettes!).