Obituary of Suzette Marie Picard

Conneaut- Suzette Marie Picard, 64, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at the Ames Family Hospice House after a courageous fight with ALS. She was born on July 27, 1959, in Conneaut, Ohio. The youngest daughter of James Albert and Barbara (Rossman) Picard, Suzy graduated from Conneaut High School and earned a degree in nursing from Kent State, Ashtabula. Her desire to care for others led her on a 20+ year career spanning various positions across home health, nursing homes, hospitals, and finally with the Lake Erie Correctional Facility. Suzy proudly practiced nursing with compassion and precision, and as a patient, expected no less. She was an introverted reader, sensitive artist, shameless performer; nurse, wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt; a bohemian heart in the throes of domestication, hers was a soul from a place she never knew. So she hung her sketches on the walls of her family's Irwin Place cottage, composed a song on her piano after household chores on clean summer days, and lulled her children to sleep with stories from her "special book collection." There were always buttons, ribbon, and a hot glue gun on standby, just waiting for Christmas to provoke her talents. With a bright light and a bitter bite, she told awful truths just as deftly as she would run from them. As a young woman, Suzy put herself on display. As an older woman, she stored herself on a shelf. She could accept being Loved only as she was, though she often wanted to be seen only as she wasn't. As her faculties declined, that Love came to her. Her creativity continued to seep out in the ways that it could, fashioning her bows and her boxes. And though her fingers had grown brittle, with tinsel spinning in the wheels of her electric wheelchair and chocolate ice cream on her shirt, Suzy played her song one more time. She leaves behind her two children, Marc (Jade Todaro) Patchen and Barbara (Nathan Finch) Patchen; siblings, Jerry (Lynn) Picard, Patty (Richard) Meeker, and Robert (Cindy Swank) Picard; her beloved niece, Gena (TJ) Colby; and Gena's children, Hailey, Jacob, Alex, and Maddix, whom Suzette Loved as her own; as well as many other dear nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents, as well as her sisters, Sara Picard and Janiece (David) Bennett. A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 4, 2024, at Thompson-Smith-Nesbitt Funeral Home, 345 Main St., Conneaut. Friends and family will gather from 1:00PM until the time of her service at 2:00PM. Online guestbook and condolences may be left at www.thompsonsmithnesbitt.com