Suzanne Elaine Spivak

Suzanne Elaine Spivak was born on September 2, 1943 and passed away on March 2nd, 2026, at the age of 82. She was the daughter of Natalie and Alfred Goodman, and she had a brother, Freddy. She and Freddy grew up in San Diego, California and Suzanne graduated from Point Loma High School in 1961. Unfortunately, they lost their father when they were young and Freddy also left this world much too soon. Suzanne and Natalie had a close relationship in the years that followed until Natalie passed away in 1994, also at the age of 82.

Suzanne is survived by her son, Craig Spivak, grandchildren Jessica (m. Joe) Lucot, Alex (m. Marlen) Goddard, Natalie Spivak, and Bailey Spivak and great-granddaughter Arden Lucot and great-grandsons Mateo and Camden Goddard. Sue, as many knew her, loved family. She doted upon her two children, Cori Goddard, who sadly passed away in 2024, and Craig. Her daughter-in-law, Jeannine, was very loving and caring toward her mother-in-law and her son-in-law, Dan, selflessly took on all the responsibilities of Suzanne's affairs since Cori passed away. She surrounded herself with family members old and young and loved to nurture and in every way take care of people.

Sue had a big personality-full of humor, intelligence, opinions, laughter, ideas-she had a lot of energy. Her home was like her-full of bright colors and nice things, delicious foods (she was a great cook) and life. She was very stylish in her dress and makeup, and she had a lot of style in the way she lived. She loved to host parties, and anybody who was ever at one of those parties had a great time and was grateful. And her elaborate Christmas cookie collections were legendary.

Suzanne could be glamorous, clumsy and shy, all at the same time. She had an infectious little girl giggle even as an adult, and would laugh the hardest at her own pratfalls. And then she would be the first to recount the stories, all the while giggling.

An example of this attractive ability to laugh at herself can be seen in this pair of episodes: One time, while her cousin Claudia and her daughters were visiting Suzanne in the summer, as they were about to set off on an adventure, she managed to trip and fall into the fountain of her apartment building. It was a shallow "pool," but Suzanne managed to soak her shorts completely. It was very funny to see. But if that wasn't enough, in the same weekend, wearing the same white shorts (now dry), they went to Seaworld. They were sitting in the first row of the Shamu whale show when Shamu jumped up and splashed down and completely drenched the first few rows of viewers. Suzanne, of course, was drenched the most, and once again, her white shorts took a beating. Once again, those who were there teased her mercilessly about that weekend of Suzanne and her shorts getting soaked not once but twice, and she would laugh her head off each time.

After being a homemaker for many years, Sue distinguished herself as a costume jewelry designer. The dynamic earrings were beautiful and sold well. She later moved to Palm Springs, where she went to work at ATM Capitol as a sales executive. At some point she began working at different trade-tech colleges as an admissions representative. She sold prospective students on the idea of signing up. She was quite good at all of these pursuits, and proud of her success. She especially loved working with the students and helping them work through all the obstacles to get enrolled. She was their biggest cheerleader and found it very rewarding to help so many get a higher education and learn valuable trades.

One thing that stayed with her to the end was her love of shopping and her creative side. Her shopping skills were legendary. The expression "shop til you drop" could have been created for her! And her creative side came out in the art workshops given at the assisted living facility she lived in and also in helping style her neighbors with cute outfits from her extensive wardrobe.

In recent years, because of her declining health, Suzanne mostly kept to herself. The many friends and family who love her have missed her during this time. The world was a better place because Suzanne was here. May she rest in peace.