Sue was one of the first people willing to talk to me about Havanese, even though she did not have a puppy to sell me. She invited me to meet her at a show in Simi Valley, CA, where I watched her do agility for the first time. Through Sue, I met someone else who remains a dear friend to this day. Sue was her friend, and literally saved the life of this lady's Havanese when he became very ill as a puppy. I can't remember how many stories I've heard about Sue helping someone with a sick pet. She was always there to help someone with a sick dog and willingly spent hours on the phone and the Internet looking for solutions to these urgent requests for help. By Los Angeles standards, Sue was my neighbor when I lived in LA. Our homes were about 20 minutes apart. Sue gave me handling classes when I started showing. She was endlessly patient and the fact that I'm still a pretty lousy handler is no fault of hers. We chuckled over the fact that Sue's husband, Dave, grew up in the same tiny town as my Dad, in New York state. Sue and I carpooled to shows together on a couple of occasions. At that time, Sue still had her last OES, and he accompanied us to the shows. He seemed to sense the excitement of going, once more, to a dog show and although he was old and failing, he perked up on these outings. It was a considerable amount of work to bring him along, but Sue did it willingly since he seemed to enjoy it. Watching Sue dance with her dogs was a true joy. It was also obvious that her dogs enjoyed it as much as the audience did. They danced with her because they loved to! I was lucky enough to work with Sue on the California specialty. She put her heart and soul into that show and it was a wonderful, fun and friendly event. Sue was a classy lady who loved, and was devoted to, this breed. Even when she was treated disrespectfully by a few former HCA board members, I never once heard her bad-mouth any of them. She was the epitome of good-sportsmanship, both in and out of the ring. Sue will be missed by many...and the Havanese fancy has suffered a huge loss in her passing. The Havanese world and the world in general could use more people like Sue Nelson. Michelle Burke