Obituary of Susan J. Hobbs

Susan J. Hobbs Vancouver, Washington January 28, 1949 ~ March 19, 2021 Susan (Sue) J. Hobbs was born 1/28/49 in White Salmon, WA and passed away in Vancouver, WA on 3/19/2021. She was 72 years old. She lived the last 38 years with her soulmate, Cathy Taylor. They were married on November 30, 2013. Sue had two children, Devin Hobbs of Hood River, OR and Carrie White of Battle Ground, WA. Cathy had five children: Raechel Frice of Ridgefield, WA, April Taylor of Battle Ground, WA, Thad Taylor of Murpny, OR, Eli Taylor of Brush Prairie, WA, and Eden Taylor, of Coeur d’Alene, ID. They also had ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Susan had two sisters, Marlene Burns of Mesa, AZ and Bonnie Hale of Oregon City, OR Sue would lose her sister Marlene with complications of hip surgery. Her sister, Bonnie and her enjoyed a sister bond until the day Sue passed. They spoke every day on the phone. Bonnie would sit the phone by her chair and wait for the call from Sue. If she did not call first, Bonnie would call her. For the last few months Sue would call her every night to say “good night” to the sister she loved dearly. Sue also had many nieces and nephews and valued the bond of family. She was hard worker and was the first woman journeyman in the James River plant on Marine drive in Portland, OR which over time changed names until it became Graphic Packaging. She retired in March of 2005 when she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and went on medical disability shortly after retiring. Sue had a valve replacement in 2010 which nearly took her life and another valve replacement in 2018. She was in remission from non-hodgkins lymphoma and survived several cancers that had invaded her body. For last two years she continued to weaken and at the end was in so much pain and her heart could take no more. She and Cathy enjoyed a good life filled with the love of family, traveling in their fifth-wheel, several cruises, annual camping trips with the family, and after Cathy retired in July of 2011 they continued to travel and started spending the winters in a retirement community in Apache Junction, AZ. At first they rented a lot and parked their trailer on it but later would purchase a lot, trade in the trailer, and purchase a park model to live in during the winter months but always came back to their home in Vancouver, WA. When the Covid pandemic hit she and Cathy were in Arizona but decided to head home. They were hopeful that they could return in November to Arizona but that was not to be. Sue enjoyed playing card games especially Poker and Euchre. She and Cathy also enjoyed played Pinnochle and a variety of other card games with dear friends that they came to know over the years. She loved playing darts with her daughter Carrie and they would have marathon games in the garage keeping track of who won the most games. When Devin was in town the game was on between the three of them. Christmas and Thanksgiving were special times with the family and, of course, birthdays all year round. For years she kept a notebook in the garage and had the grandchildren come to the garage so she could measure how much they had grown by weighing them and measuring how tall they were. As the years passed she liked to look at that book and see what she had recorded. She also had a calendar that she kept by her chair so she could record all appointments and special occasions even though Cathy also had them in her phone calendar and would share them with her so she had them on her phone as well. She was a creature of habit, didn’t much go for change although she never complained when Cathy wanted to paint a room in the house again and again. Before getting together with Cathy, Sue had been married to Buck Hobbs of Hood River, OR. Buck married again and Sue and Cathy enjoyed a friendship with Buck and his wife Mary. Sue had two friends from grade school and friends from work that she stayed in touch with throughout the years. Sue and Cathy made many new friends in Arizona and looked forward to seeing them when November rolled around and it was time to pack up and head back to Apache Junction. Sue was a person that when you met her, you never forgot her. She was a giving, loving person; a kind soul. She will always be remembered, but now she is free of pain and she can rest in peace. I feel very fortunate to have shared my life with Sue. She was the love of my life and I hers. She was my best friend. I received a poem from my nephew Rabyn which is lengthy but I wanted to share the last two paragraphs. It was written by David Whyte and it is about friendship. “Friendship transcends disappearance: an enduring friendship goes on after death, the exchange only transmuted by absence, the relationship advancing and maturing in a silent internal conversational way even after one half of the bond has passed on. But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend of sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” Till we meet again…. THERE WILL BE A CELEBRATION OF LIFE IN THE SUMMER FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.