Susan Bradshaw

Susan Hope Deming Bradshaw passed away in the early hours of June 28, 2020 at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah with her husband and children by her side.  Daughter of Douglas Arthur Deming Sr. and Patricia Ellen Wills, she was born in Great Lakes, Illinois on February 19, 1965.  The third of eight children. She was 55 when she passed.

Susan had struggled a number of years with various health problems.  In January of 2019 she found out that her mitral heart valve was being damaged by rheumatic fever antibodies that came from strep throat sickness as a child. Over the years her shortness of breath was thought to be due to asthma but it was really the slowly degrading mitral valve.  Open heart surgery with a mitral valve replacement became her only option to prolong her life. The surgery was performed on March 4, 2020.  Complications followed and she spent her last four months in the hospital in continuous care.  Hope for recovery was still very much part of the struggle and she had made slow improvements.  On Thursday June 25th an infection had started and by the following Saturday night it had irrevocably attached itself to her new heart valve causing it to lose function.  She passed at 12:25 am Sunday morning. One day after her 34th wedding anniversary and on her son Sam’s Birthday.

Susan is survived by her Father and Mother, Doug Sr. and Pat Deming; Husband Donald K Bradshaw; Sons Benjamin Q Bradshaw, Jared D Bradshaw, and Samuel K Bradshaw; Daughter, Emily Hope Bradshaw Schuck (Trent); Granddaughter Ada Hope Schuck; Brothers and Sisters, John Deming (Cole), Michelle Deming, Whitney Sivill (Jack), Roger Deming (Amy Ann), Peggy Bills (Jake), Amy Ovard (Brad) and Doug Deming Jr. (Melissa).

Born February 19, 1965 at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital, in Illinois, she lived with grandparents while her father was serving with the Marines in Japan.  As a daughter of a career Marine, she moved all over the country, Oceanside California in 1966; Quantico, Virginia in 1969; Vista, California while father was in Vietnam in 1971; Quantico, Virginia and then to Pensacola, Florida in 1972; back to Quantico in 1973. They moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia in 1977.  In 1979 her father retired from the Marine Corps and moved to Provo, Utah to finish his BS at BYU.

In May 1975 her family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was always proud of being a first-generation member and proud of her parents for accepting and recognizing the spirit that the Gospel brings.

One of Susan’s fondest memories of her childhood was of her playing in the wooded forest behind her house while in Quantico, Virginia.  Playing in the creek and catching crawdads.  She would often call on those memories during trying times.  She loved the Virginia wood during the fall.

At age 8 she joined the local swim team and traveled throughout the Southern states with that team.  She was also a Brownie in the Girl Scouts. At age 10 she learned to play the Violin.

She remembered all the road trips that their family made back and forth across the country for her Father’s different transfers. He made the road trips into a fun vacation seeing the sites across the country.

Susan attended Provo High School her sophomore year, Davis High School her junior year and Kearns High School her senior year where she graduated in 1983.

In high school, he was part of choir where she gained her love for singing. She worked at Lagoon while living in Farmington and ZCMI later while attending College.

She attended BYU, University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College where she studied nursing.  She worked as a health claim processer for a number of companies off and on over the years. She was blessed to be able to be a fulltime mother and homemaker most of her years with Don.

In the fall of 1985, she met the love of her life Don. She met him while attending a young adult fireside where Don was talking about his recent mission to Brisbane, Australia. Don remembers the sassy fiery redhead that would not take any guff from the U of U fans in the room making fun of her BYU sweatshirt. They were married on June 27, 1986 in Salt Lake City Temple. Together they raised four wonderful children: Ben, Jared, Sam and Emily.

She raised her family in various apartments throughout the Salt Lake Valley for 5 years while Don finished schooling and got a decent job, Kearns for 5 years in their first house, Riverton for 10 and in Kaysville the last 14 years.

She loved to serve others. She served in many callings for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including primary teacher, Relief Society 1st Counselor, Girls Camp Director and many others.   She had a strong testimony of the church to the end and although her health made it hard to leave home and attend church, she loved the gospel and it sustained her through her trials.

She was an avid Genealogist, working with her dad to discover and send to the temple hundreds of her ancestors that had never been found before.  We are sure there will be throngs in heaven greeting her and thanking her for her work and their hope for salvation.

She was an excellent seamstress, loved quilting, and was very creative with all sorts of crafts. She loved to decorate the house, loved fashion and loved to watch Project Runway.

Recently she had decided to make quilts for friends and family. She collected a massive collection of quilting material. She had picked out and labeled more than two dozen boxes of material specifically for each person. She was able to finish some but many remain unfinished.

She loved to sing and had a beautiful voice. She was a member of the Oritorio Society of Utah for several years and participated in putting on The Messiah concerts each Christmas.   She loved listening to the Tabernacle Choir.  Her favorite songs were “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need”, “Shenandoah”, and “Consider the Lilies”.

She was a gardener, pet breeder and dog lover. She loved her four Shih Tzu and two Great Pyrenees and loved it when the Shih Tzu had puppies.  She thought it was great fun to teach Bear, her Great Pyrenees, to howl on command and would have a great laugh when all the dogs would howl together.

As a movie enthusiast, she would quote all the funny lines in her favorite movies, especially with her friend Camille Hood.  She loved Jane Austin/period piece movies, Coen Brothers movies, and any movie that made her laugh.

Susan had an infectious laugh that would light up any room she was in. Her sometimes irreverent humor would be too much for the uptight faction but no one could deny how funny she was.

She was a fiery red head with a passion for fighting for the disparaged and those she felt had been wronged. Sometimes that lead to hard feelings but she always later recognized her mistakes and how it may have hurt others and tried to make amends.

With 10 years between her and her younger sister, Susan was adored by her 5 younger siblings, who all looked to her like a second mother. They remember being excited when they saw her car out in front of their house and running home to see her.

Susan was very generous and giving. Without a second thought, she took in many people into her home who had nowhere else to go, letting them stay with the family as long as they needed. Many became like sons to her.

Raising her kids, being a mother and grandmother and watching her granddaughter Ada in the afternoons was her greatest joy.

Thank you to all those who were her friend and for your loving support and kindness over the last 10 years during her sicknesses.  She truly loved you all.

Hope was her middle name. It inspired her to have hope in Christ and the Atonement and for a life everlasting after this world.

Don and the family would really appreciate having you add your memories of Susan, no matter how small, in the comments on the Lindquist Mortuary site under her obituary. It will help heal the pain of losing a sweetheart, mother, daughter, sister and friend.

Graveside services will be held Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at Kaysville City Cemetery, 500 E. Crestwood Road.  Friends may visit family Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. and Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Lindquist’s Kaysville Mortuary, 400 North Main.

Due to current circumstances attendees will be asked to follow guidelines for COVID 19 including wearing face masks and social distancing.