Suzanne Goldy

Suzanne Goldy was born in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, May 21, 1932, and passed away on April 20, 2022 at the age of 89 in Pueblo, Colorado. A celebration of life service will be held at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1 Del Mar Circle, Aurora, Colorado at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 21, 2022, which would have been her 90th birthday. She was preceded in death by her parents, T. Brice Rickman and Myrna Louise Rickman. Our matriarch blessed us with life, for without her we wouldn’t be here. She had two sons, Eric C. (Lynnette) Goldy, Pueblo West, Colorado and Darin M. Goldy, Aurora, Colorado; grandchildren Michael J. Goldy, Lakewood, Colorado and Megan N. Goldy, Des Moines, Iowa; and those she loved as her own: Travis, Mason and Jase Wodiuk, Pueblo, Colorado and Alexis (John) and Turner Beix, Portland, Oregon; and all her friends at the Belmont Lodge Nursing Home, Pueblo, Colorado.

Sue was baptized as Christ’s own in 1932 at the Episcopal Cathedral in Denver. She was a fourth-generation Coloradoan. She lived her entire life in Colorado—the first 75 years in Denver and Aurora and the last 14 years in Pueblo. She attended Denver South High School from 1948-1951 and after graduation she attended CU-Boulder for one year and then transferred to Denver University. There she met many lifelong sorority friends, along with her best friend for life, Marty Mercer, who were friends since childhood. Sue met Donald Goldy while at DU, and they married in 1954. Sue was a stay-at-home mom who poured love into her family and into everyone she met. She often said, “Have Love in your Heart, not Hate.”

Her many interests included bridge, singing, nature (with a focus on birds), art, painting, photography, and walking in Christ’s light and love always. After the birth of her first son, she attended St “PJ’s” better known as St Philip and St James Episcopal Church in Harvey Park where the family settled in 1956 and where she began a ministry in serving youth programs both at St. PJ’s and at the Diocesan level. Before she was done with this calling and ministry, she participated in over 100 camps and retreats, from everything as a cook to a counselor to a conference leader where her final piece was as a Director of the Trinity Ranch Camp & Conference Center Board in the early 1970’s for five years. She also ministered to the young, the homeless, family members and church family. She served on the Diocesan Executive Council of Colorado for three years during William Fry’s ministry as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. She was a member of St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Aurora and served on the vestry when the Rev. Rod Moore was Rector. She sang Alto in all of the choirs where she worshiped over the years. She did all of this while being a single parent and raising two challenging boys, and beginning a career in the Aurora public school system.

She worked for two elementary schools in the Auroral school system, first at Wheeling Elementary where she began as a teacher’s aide. She excelled at recess and lunch duty on the playground. And she would always joke that she never lost a kid; scrapes and bumps yes, but they all went home at the end of the day. She spent the first six years at Wheeling and the rest of her years at Sable Elementary. At Sable she was a teacher’s aide and an associate teacher and then she was sent to the principal’s office where they gave her a desk and finished out the rest of her working years. She shared that this was always a fun and challenging time but it was the people she worked with and the kids that meant everything to her.

Sue took early retirement so she could take care of her mother who was diagnosed with Sundowner’s and Alzheimer’s for a little over seven years. Four of those years her beloved mother, “Weezy”, was non-ambulatory. This meant she needed 24 hours-a-day care. Back in the early 1990’s there was not the support for people being caregivers of family members at home as there is today. This loving gift to her mother says everything anyone needs to know about who Sue was. She was a loving soul with a sweet spirit.

Sue moved to Pueblo, Colorado in the fall of 2007 where one of her son’s and his family lived. No matter where she lived, she was always loved by all. Her not-so-secret of why was simple: she was always pouring love into others. In her later years, she became a member of St John’s, and we would like to thank Fr Stephen Powley, Fr Thomas Lynch and the Greek community for their love and support of Mama Sue. In the fall of 2018, we began the journey of dementia, Sundowner’s and ultimately Alzheimer’s. By late August of 2019, she had moved into her new home at the Belmont Lodge in Pueblo, where her sweet spirit continued to flourish. In a little more than 2-1/2 years there she made many friends, those closest were Sandy and Yoshi. The one thing you would always hear the Belmont staff mention was that she never complained, which she never did. It was a tough time for all of us due to the 18 months of the Covid lockdown in nursing homes from March, 2020 until September, 2021, being only able to see familiar faces via WhatsApp or FaceTime. But once again, she never complained. We thank God for the last seven months that we had with Mama Sue. We were blessed that family members were able to visit, to have the opportunity to be with her on WhatsApp and speak to her as we helped place Mama Sue into the hand of our Lord.

We would like to take a moment and thank the nursing staff at the Belmont Lodge on the west wing for all their loving care of our Mama Sue. The nursing staff are unsung heroes and we will always be thankful for their loving care. We would also like to thank Michelle, Monica, Kelly and Jill along with all the staff at the Belmont. She loved everyone there, and they loved her too.

Blessings Always, +

Join the family in person or on Zoom: Click here using Meeting ID: 650 209 604, and Password: 681861.