Bonnie Jean Sutherland Obituary
Bonnie Jean Sutherland was an only child born to two apple farmers, Elmer and Eulah Van Waes in upstate New York. She resided in the small community of Alton, NY where she helped in the orchards picking fruit by hand when she wasn't attending school. Her parents, having suffered hardship during the Great Depression, instilled in her the values of frugality, to waste not and want not, and the obsessive desire to overstock her cabinets, pantry, and freezers whenever possible in preparation for what hopefully would never happen again.
Bonnie enjoyed high school academics and became prolific in the now obscure skills of dictation and writing shorthand. She had the grades and the academic prowess to attend college, but unfortunately grew up in a time where, "Girls don't do that". So, three days after graduating from Sodus Central High School, she left home to go to Cornell University. There, she got a job as a secretary in the Agricultural Extension Program and later in Cornell's Department of Entomology. One day, breaking from her normal routine she caught the late campus bus after work where she met her soul mate Jeffrey Clark Sutherland, a geology student. Bonnie and Jeff married on June 16, 1962.
In the early 1970's, opportunity led her and her husband to East Grand Rapids, Michigan where she quit working to become a full-time mother and homemaker. She raised two children, Jeffrey Matthew and Anastasia Ellen. She was a selfless mother who would go without so her children could have. She also made sure her children had the education she was denied. Bonnie neither sought close friendships nor joined social groups or clubs. Yet, she had the innate ability to start a conversation with a complete stranger at any school function, medical office waiting room, or any line in which she had to stand at the grocery store or pharmacy. Not only did she have the gift of gab, but she had the ability to listen. If not at the kitchen, she was only a phone call away from offering practical common-sense advice in a nonjudgmental manner.
Retirement inspired Bonnie and Jeff to relocate to Pensacola, Florida where they would never again have to shovel snow. Bonnie cooked wonderful meals and baked the most flavorful apple pies. Bonnie was an avid reader of mysteries and a prolific knitter who hand made many items of clothing while watching her favorite soap operas. She was a dog mom who showered her dogs with love and affection and spoiled them with crackers and cream cheese. She was the old lady on her street who gossiped with the neighbors and greeted the school children while walking her furry friends. Bonnie was a tough old gal, a woman of temperance, and a survivor. She was diagnosed a severe diabetic at age twenty and was told she would be lucky to see age 40. She defied the doctor's prognosis and further spited them by overcoming lung cancer as well. Bonnie lived to the age of 82, when the Good Lord called her home. She is survived by her two above mentioned children, her two grandson, Jeffrey Andrew and Jovaney Aquilino, and her daughter-in-law, Ana Maria. She is greatly loved and deeply missed.
