In Lieu of Flowers for Sue Ballard

On Monday, August 1st, 2022, Suzanne Ballard, loving mother, grandmother, and sister, passed away surrounded by her family after a fierce and quick battle with cancer. She just celebrated her 62nd birthday.

Sue Ballard was born on July 21st, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan to James and Margot. At the age of 2, her dad's job moved them to Boulder, Colorado, where she was raised. She grew into a happy, bell-bottomed hippy with flowers in her hair. She learned to play guitar in the park and had many friends and stories to tell. In the '70s, as a teen, her dad's job moved her to Rochester, MN. She lived a rough life and spent time running away to the west coast and fell in love with San Francisco. During this time, she found the best friend she could ever ask for, Laurie, who was there with her up until the end.

These last few years, Sue spent most of her time helping to raise her grandkids, tending to her garden, loving her dog Sasko, and playing MMOs on her computer. She also enjoyed drum circles, playing guitar, singing, writing poetry and songs, camping, and traveling - which she didn't get to do enough.

Six years ago, Sue was diagnosed with lung cancer. She had surgery to remove tumors and underwent treatment to take care of the rest. She beat cancer and went into remission! October 2021, she had a scan and was told she was clear and had been in remission long enough to be called cancer free! On July 17th, four days before her 62nd birthday, she went into the emergency room due to severe neck/arm pain and difficulty breathing. That night, Sue was transported to Saint Mary's campus in Rochester, MN. Several days and several scans and testing revealed that her cancer had returned. Doctors called it metistatic; she had a tumor in her neck at the C6, large enough to break her neck. The game plan was to dig out the tumor, have neck surgery placing in a cage and plate, and get her home so she could start chemotherapy and radiation for the cancer.

Over the following three weeks, she progressively got worse. Sue would need a 2nd surgery to stabilize her neck. It became more difficult to breathe, more challenging to swallow, and the pain wasn't improving. The game plan changed, get chemotherapy started and postpone the 2nd surgery until after she got the cancer beat. Sunday night, Sue couldn't breathe anymore on her own. She was taken into the ICU at Saint Mary's, where they attempted to give her a CPAP mask, but it did no good. With no other option, they intubated her.

On Monday, August 1st, the family made the most heartbreaking decision not to do chemotherapy. They were informed the most aggressive chemo would not cure her. The tube was pulled out. Sue was surrounded by love as she left the world, passing at 9 pm Monday.

Sue was preceded in death by her father, James, her mother, Margot, and grandson, Andrew. Sue is survived by her three daughters, Robyn, Tiffany (Lynn), and Trisha, her sister Christiana (Kristy), eight grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and many cousins.

The family is asking anyone who wants to contribute any gifts in her memory to consider donating to her family instead to help with medical bills, celebration of life expenses, lawyer expenses and other bills left behind.