Suzanne Kochevar
Memorial Service Comments for Susan Sekely…January 22, 2023
I met Susan soon after she arrived in the United States. Her husband, Dezso Sekely, had just completed an installation at the Smithsonian and accepted a design instructor position at NDSU, where I was a Senior working towards a Major in Interior Design and a Minor in Architecture. I was recently divorced with 2 young boys…and Susan and Dezso took us ‘under their wings’ and we became very close friends. Dezso and I spent many hours together talking about design…and Susan was just learning English and her favorite topic was medicine. Needless to say, there were many laughs during those conversations! My boys and I traveled with them to NYC and my sons still talk about their time with Deszo and Susan as they ‘showed us around’….since this was our first time in NYC!
I was with Susan during the time Deszo was in the hospital just prior to his death. During that time Dezso asked me to ‘please take care of Susan’…which of course, I said I would do. However, Susan made it quite clear that she did not want to move to Minnesota and live in such cold weather! As she often said, “I’m a summer girl!” So that meant many long phone conversations and afew trips to Florida to visit her. Susan was devoted to medicine and her patients. When she was still working and I was visiting, there were many times that a late night call or a trip to the hospital for her patient would quickly change our plans. She loved her patients and they apparently loved her!
My early visits to Florida would include long walks on the beach, hours in the swimming pool, long talks about Hungary, lessons about opera….and hours of just chatting. Shopping was not ‘her thing’…so we never shopped! We would occasionally go out for dinner…but she ate like ‘a bird’….until she met Anna!! Anna was the only person who could get her to eat healthy and regularly!
Susan and I decided our relationship was somewhere between her being my ‘big sister’ and her being my ‘second mom’…we shared a deep connection that spanned 45 years.
Susan…I will miss our phone conversations and your always present question: “How cold is it in Minnesota today?” Rest in peace with Dezso…I will love both of you forever!