Mrs Susan Jo Guilian

Susan Jo (Crane) Guilian passed peacefully from this life on May 29, 2017, with her family gathered at her side. Susan was born in Albany, New York on December 3, 1945. Her father was a U.S. Air Force aviator and officer, so Susan moved often as a child. She attended school in New York, Colorado, California, and Louisiana, before graduating from Limestone High School in Limestone, Maine in 1963. Susan graduated from the University of Maine – where she was a classmate of famed author Stephen King – with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1967. While at UMaine, Susan was a winning member of the Blackbears billiards team. One of the highlights of Susan’s college years was getting to see her hero, President John F. Kennedy, speak a few months before his assassination in 1963. After college, Susan joined the U.S. State Department as a civil service officer. After months of training and education, Susan accepted her first assignment in 1968 as province political advisor in Biên Hòa, South Vietnam, near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Susan spent 18 months in Vietnam during the war, where she developed a deep love and compassion for the South Vietnamese people who were caught up in the conflagration. While she did not often speak of her time in Vietnam, her experience helped to shape her political and social views for the rest of her life. After Vietnam, Susan left the State Department, was married, had a son, was divorced, and then settled in Fort Walton Beach, Florida to be near her parents following her father’s retirement as a Lt. Colonel from Hurlburt Field. Susan’s greatest love and legacy is her beloved son, Roger, and his family. Never has a mother loved a child more, or done more for a child, than Susan did for Roger. She dedicated her life to raising a good son, being both mother and father to him, as so many single mothers do. Throughout their life together, any time Susan’s son looked up from a baseball game, band concert, halftime show, graduation, or the birth of his children, Susan was there. Her legacy of selfless, unconditional love lives on in her son and his children. In her later years, Susan’s great joy were her cherished grandchildren, whom she would visit often, never missing a birthday, “grandparents’ day” at school, or a Christmas morning with them. Susan’s other great love was her career at Bridgeway Center, Inc., a non-profit health and human services company that provides counseling in Fort Walton Beach. She spent nearly two decades at Bridgeway, where her passion and dedication to Bridgeway’s clients were a source of inspiration to her colleagues. Susan made lifelong friends at Bridgeway, and she adored her Bridgeway family. Very late in life, Susan volunteered as a “Chemo-sahbee” in the chemotherapy infusion lab the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute at Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, Alabama, where she herself had undergone chemotherapy. Susan started out as a patient who received chemo in the lab, and as soon as she was healthy enough, she gave back by serving the other patients until she became too sick again to continue. The friends she made among the nurses, staff, and patients at the MCI-Thomas Infusion Lab were among her dearest. Susan’s legacy of selflessly loving, doing, giving, and serving is unmatched, and her infectious smile and sense of humor will never be forgotten by anyone lucky enough to have known her. Susan was preceded in death by her beloved parents, Herbert William Crane (Lt. Col., USAF Retired) and Muriel Crane. She is survived by her son Roger (Leslie) and her three grandchildren, whom she loved immeasurably; her sister Janet Manchon (John); her niece Lisa Lotane (Troy); her nephews Johnny Manchon, Patrick Manchon (Tom Welsh), David Manchon (Missy), Adam Manchon, and Daniel Manchon (Meghan), as well as eight great-nieces and great-nephews – all of whom she loved dearly. A private celebration of Susan’s life will be held in Fort Walton Beach, Florida this summer. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that donations be made to the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute at the University of South Alabama (http://www.usahealthsystem.com/makeagift) or Bridgeway Center, Inc. (http://www.bridgewaycenter.org/contribute/donate.html). Please go to www.casonfuneralservice.com to sign the Memorial Book Arrangements are by Cason Funeral Service, Foley, Alabama

Mrs Susan Jo Guilian

December 3, 1945 - May 29, 2017

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Mrs Susan Jo Guilian

December 3, 1945 - May 29, 2017

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

Plan Ahead

About Us

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Grief & Healing

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