Susan Fitzmaurice

Ancestors

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Susan Fitzmaurice is a descendant of a Mayflower Passenger.

Biography

I was born in Detroit, Wayne Michigan in what was than the Women's Hospital, but is now part of the Detroit Medical Center. I lived with my parents in a flat above my grandparents in NW Detroit until the summer after I was 4. Their home had a continuous flow of relatives coming to live with them - my great grandparents, aunt,uncles, friends, etc. My grandpa worked for the city and his job was secure and well paid when so many were struggling during the depression. The tradition of the open door continued through my youth.

1958 was the year my family moved from Detroit to Dearborn Heights, my brother Richard was born, and my father died of kidney failure. Life was pretty hard for my mom, so we took in a teenager, Cassandra, to give her a home and help out my mom with us.

In 1960 my mom remarried. Richard Dahler worked for Ford Tractor and travel was part of his job. He would go to places where Ford was setting up factories and get the layout of parts assembly done correctly.

In 1966 our family moved to Lima, Peru for a year. I went to an International School and lived the life of the upper crust in Lima.

When we returned home we moved to Livonia, Michigan. I went to Frost Middle School and had my first serious boyfriend and loved journalism. I took some of my first trips with my Grandma and Aunt Irma to visit relatives and visit graveyards down South (Southern Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee.) I got the genealogy bug.

1968 took our family to Mexico, where I had a boyfriend who swam in the Olympics. I went to an "American School" and my bleeding heart liberalism was fostered.

High school for me was a challenge because school in South America was much more advanced and I was bored. I was a delegate to a Model United Nations in DC. I did a lot of volunteer work, including being a candy striper in what was then considered a very forward thinking progressive institution.

College was amazing! I loved going to Thomas Jefferson College, part of what is now Grand Valley. We designed our own classes and graded ourselves - and we were much harder on ourselves than our profs would have been. I got a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in societal realities.

I went straight on to Bank St.Graduate School of Education in NYC and took classes in this new emerging field of special education. My first job was teaching preschool children with multiple disabilities in what might now be considered something like Head Start.

I wanted a change and to get out of NYC, so I went to Grand Forks, ND and taught in a one room school that was for the kids of university professors who didn't like the conservative education offered. I didn't like the conservative nature of ND and I got back to NYC as soon as the school year was over.

I spent the next decade there. I got jobs in teaching and nannying, subscriptions to the Opera and Ballet, a love of exotic food, and the two best friends you could ever have.

As my 30th birthday loomed and the tick of my biological clock deafened me, I adopted my son Teddy. He was my foster child for three years. Those years were difficult as Teddy has Down syndrome and had been prenatally exposed to cocaine. But I adored him.

My 30s were spent being a mom. Teddy got every type of therapy known to man and that meant me taking him there. I opened a children's bookstore so I could set my own hours and be in a child friendly place.

I discovered the internet and I discovered love. I was part of a very early internet community on Compuserve and eventually met John. He lived in England and I stopped everything in my life and hopped the pond to live in Norfolk. I loved it there and started to get a real sense of where my ancestors had lived. Little did I know at first that my favorite castle tea room was also an ancestral home. Sadly I wasn't allowed to immigrate and had to return to the US broken hearted.

I went back to college since I had no idea what I wanted in my life, only what I couldn't have. I got a second bachelor's degree, and a second and third master's in 3 years. I drowned my sorrows in study, but this one guy kept letting me cry on his shoulder.

He was a friend from that old internet community and I slowly fell in love with him. 25 years later we are still in love. And he still lives in Boston and I live outside Detroit. Ours is an open relationship of mostly amazing communication. My duties as a mom of a significantly disabled adult continue and this works out well for us.

I spend my time doing disability activism and it takes me all over the US. I founded I Love You, Lead On a community of people with disabilities, on the board of Michigan Arts Acess, in addition to the Society for Disability Studies. I spend altogether too much time working on my tree when I should be doing other things.

I have recently been diagnosed with guillaine barre syndrome and the time may come sooner that I hoped that I must retire from genealogy.

Digital afterlife

In the knowledge that we are all mortal, I hereby request that upon my death, all of my managed profiles of deceased persons including my own profile should be set to full open status. (Please add my year of death.) I would welcome any descendant or cousin to then become profile manager and continue this labor of love which I and my grandmothenrs and great aunt started so many decades ago.

If I manage profiles you are interested in managing, do not hesitate to ask. In most cases, I will gladly let you become the profile manager and bow out. I want to keep my direct ancestors, but others I will gladly let go to a new home.