SULTAN — Susan Ady knew how to take a joke.
She and her husband, Ben Ady, raised their two children with kindness and devotion, but her son, Benjamin Ady, will always remember the side of her that found humor in everything.
“She was so much fun, but she had a slight naivete to her that we would take advantage of as kids,” Benjamin Ady said. “But she had such a great sense of humor about it and we would all get a big laugh out of it afterwards.”
Her love as a mother was never in doubt to her children, and evident in a story she told Benjamin about when he was born. In 1975, he was born two weeks premature at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma. His lung collapsed and he was immediately airlifted to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to receive treatment at Wilford Hall Hospital.
Susan Ady argued vehemently against being separated from her newborn. She wanted to be with her son, but the doctors would not allow her to go, arguing that she had just given birth and needed to rest.
She asked if she could be released from the hospital and she was, but under the condition that she went home to rest.
Hours later, she was on a bus to Texas to be with her son.
Benjamin Ady not only remembers his mother’s devotion to her family, but to her faith as well. Susan Ady and her husband regularly attended First Baptist Church in Monroe. An active leader in the church, she spent considerable time in the church’s Awana program and daily spent time in prayer, reading her Bible by the pasture fence at their home.
“She was a woman of incredible faith. If there is one thing that I remember her for, it was that,” Benjamin Ady said. “I remember one time when I was 16 and my dad took a left in front of a huge truck. Everyone in the car was scared and yelling, everyone but my mom, who just raised her hand and simply said ‘Lord, here we come.’ “
Susan Ady is survived by her husband, Ben Ady; sisters Kathleen Chapman and Carol Young; brothers David Eaton and Steven Eaton; son Benjamin Ady and his wife, Megan; daughter Katherine Ady-Dunhill; as well as granddaughters Eowyn and Cossette Ady.
Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.
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