Things Sue taught me

In honor of losing a dear member of THRS, I feel the need to share things Sue taught me.
Many moons ago, when I got the idea of minors working rescue (think 1999) not only did I have to work with the townships attorneys, committee members,  insurance people, human resources, and voters....I also had to sell the squad members on the junior program, since they were the ones absorbing the responsibility of keeping us alive.  After jumping thru a million hoops (at the age of 16) I was faced with the squadies, and told "if you sell them, it's a done deal".

I met with most privately so we could hash out their real thoughts.  My conversation with Sue was pretty clear...
"Are you going to date cops??"  Um...we'll I'm 16 so I'm guessing no, that's sort of creepy (we laugh at this now)
"Will you listen to me when I hold you back?"  Not happily...but yes.
"What are you bringing to the table?"  We'll...we'll carry all the heavy stuff, listen, do paperwork...and we can't drive.

It seemed like a simple deal, but what I really learned from Sue, non-squadies won't get.  For instance, one day, someone was working to fix a garage door...they got tangled in the door pulley and basically were almost strangled in front of me and 2 others while we panicked. After the situation, there was a huge screaming match....and while I wasn't involved, I cried because adults yelling was so scary to me.   A week later, Sue pulled me aside, reminded me "it's done, were family here kiddo....I love him so much and was angry he thought we didn't care....but we've yelled and screamed and were over it....so let's move on"
That was a true sign of unconditional love.

A few years later, the tropicana collapse happened.  I was there and offered to go with her. She said "baby girl, I just don't have it in me after 9/11....if you NEED me, I'll go....but I'd rather stay and support you in any way" I grabbed a partner and we were gone 12 hours.
And she did support us. She called me 3 days in a row, afterwards to check on me.

Sue taught me unconditional love among this family.
She taught me to cry outside your patients house.
She taught me how to humbly say "you're welcome" when a patient came to thank me.
She taught me how to accept criticism from our elders when we weren't exactly right.
She also taught me how to stand up to someone when we were right.
She taught me how to stay safe.
And she loved me and every other junior, when everyone else saw us as a pain in the ass....she let us on her truck, let us carry those bags and let us treat critical patients, giving us confidence.

I learned a lot from Sue as an EMT, but I really feel like I learned so much more from her as a person.

Tell me what you learned from Sue.