Susannah Elwyn

Susannah Elwyn of Havertown, Pennsylvania died in her home on Monday August 26, 2024 from metastatic breast cancer. Many would say Susannah was the kindest, smartest person they ever knew. The rest were not paying attention. 

As she left us, Susannah was surrounded by her sons, husband, and mother as they said their goodbyes, swaddling her with the love and strength her spirit had engendered. Susannah departed immediately after we read her the text messages from many concerned loved ones. This followed earlier visits from dear friends and fellow soccer moms, a morning full of soothing words and her favorite music, and a weekend full of visits with beloved family and far-flung friends. This, in turn, came after months of precious visits, phone calls, and texts with the people who knew and, thus, loved her. Susannah allowed us to say goodbye, and she most lovingly said goodbye to all of us. 

During her final five months, family, in-laws, and friends from near and far mobilized to care for Susannah, her husband, and her sons, amidst the logistics of hospital stays, radiation, chemo treatments, and normal obligations. It was not without notice that many of these loved ones were struggling with their own profound sources of grief or stress. 

An amazing team of doctors and nurses at UPenn sustained her for two years, following the work of her wonderful team at Lankenau Hospital, who treated Susannah upon her initial breast cancer diagnosis in 2019. Words cannot express the gratitude we all feel for these extra years and their many happy memories. Words also fail in expressing the profound grace and competency of these professionals, who became family.

Born in Shelby, North Carolina in 1975 alongside twin sister, Melissa Elwyn (Slavin), Susannah’s family relocated to Horseheads, New York in 1977. Childhood brought forth a whirlwind of world travel, thanks to a generous Corning Glass policy allowing personal use of business-accrued frequent flyer miles. That meant Susannah, Melissa, and their dear, loving parents – Edward and Florence (Schweitzer) Elwyn – were always on the go. Settling down on occasion to play tennis and clarinet, and for some high-flying academics, Susannah graduated from Horseheads High School in 1993. She did this in parallel with her best friend, Melissa, with their prodigious ‘sister act’ landing them in the local news while turning heads in the Elmira-Corning area. Susannah graced the Southern Tier with her continued presence through her enrollment at Cornell University, earning a BS in Biology in 1997. Before starting her career in Chicago, in 2000, Susannah also earned an MS in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Arizona, studying rates of change within bacterial genomes in the earlier days of bioinformatics.

After a short, enriching stay in Boston, Susannah moved to Philadelphia with her husband, Jacob Russell. Leveraging her research experience at the University of Chicago, and her microarray experience at Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics, Susannah secured employment as a research technician, working for three labs at UPenn as an expert in studies of gene expression. 

In these younger days, life was filled with fine dining, visits with family and friends, and many late nights of fun. Late nights would occasionally devolve into karaoke and into heaps of tired, snoring, travelers’ bodies strewn across couches and air mattresses. During the evenings of her earlier Philly years, Susannah took cooking and pottery classes to fill the quiet hours while her husband labored towards tenure. Providing crucial support for him, she was always the rock in his foundation. 

Susannah also volunteered for her treasured alma mater, interviewing Cornell applicants up through 2023. Amidst all of these places, jobs, and extracurriculars, Susannah bonded deeply with many great people. She loved to laugh, and frequently made people laugh – including herself, retreating to her head-bowed, hands-across mouth pose as she giggled after her finest jokes. 

She cared deeply about her friends and family. So many of those who met her in her prime became friends for life, developing passions for the things she loved. These things included Rick Astley, penguins, and narrating the inner dialogues of pets and stuffed animals. Susannah’s big heart endeared her to many precious pets over the years – Dreyfus, Alex, Stinky, Mason, Coco, and Gill being among those closest. 

Her most profound love, though, was for children. Susannah and Jacob started their family much in sync with her sister and brother-in-law, Joshua Slavin. Nolan and Wyatt Russell were born the same years as their cousins, Scarlett and Patrick Slavin. Susannah could not have loved them more, and the four became life-bonded at an early age. There was less fine dining for the new parents, and less karaoke. But the highs of a life sustained on chicken nugget scraps and half-eaten veggies, and sing-alongs to “Wheels on the Bus” and Kids’ Bop, were simply unrivaled.

Susannah loved and was loved by many wonderful people from Jacob’s and Joshua’s families. And she lived to share the joy of her children with all family and friends. While the list of those completely gutted by her loss takes up volumes, many will continue to feel Susannah’s love through her children. Still others will feel it through knowing other loved ones who were shaped by her warmth. Others may feel it when they are Rick-rolled. 

Certainly all will remember Susannah’s courage and perseverance. She learned some of this from her dearly departed father during his face-down with lung cancer. She learned it, also, from her mother and sister, who have spines of steel. But most came from within. Susannah never said ‘die’. She held hospice at bay until the last four days of life. She showed up for every soccer game and school event until the very closest end. She traveled. She visited. She chatted and laughed with us. She worked at UPenn through April, despite nasty chemo side effects, including open wounds on her mouth, hands, and feet. She wore her cancer cap, just knowing one day that her beautiful hair would return. 

Her family will establish a fund with goals of a memorial scholarship, and of support for renovations at the Haverford Township Free Library. In lieu of flowers, donations toward this fund can be directed toward her husband Jacob Russell. In lieu of a direct donation, Susannah would want you to support your own local library, women in science, breast cancer research, the environment, hungry children, or the SPCA. And she would definitely want you to read “A Prayer for Owen Meany”.