There’s a shelf of books in my kitchen: cookbooks, cocktail collections, food writings, etc. They tend to include many illustrations, which I’ve looked at many times. That said, I can’t say that I’ve used many recipes in them, or even read in depth most of the food writings. (The most read is probably a book on folding napkins.) All the same, I could never let them go, as I’d done with countless academic books. There’s a martini book bought during a vacation in Montana and eastern Washington. There’s a pasta encyclopedia purchased shortly after I began working as a caterer at Northwest Hospital. There’s an Indian cookbook gifted by dear friend Jennifer Kelly on a birthday during my years at L’Arche Seattle. There’s a book of cocktails by Michael Jackson, not the King of Pop but a bartender, received at one Christmas from my housemate Tara Dunphy. There’s a book of mocktails from Lindsay Mase, a student upon her graduation three years ago. And so on. Yah, it’s full of sentimental value.

Among those items is a collection of recipes from Sue Hudacek, who was an assistant and leader of the L’Arche Seattle community for years before she moved to the L’Arche Tacoma community. It was with L’Arche Tacoma that Sue lived and worked at until her death a little over a month ago. I met Sue during my first year in L’Arche, when she had already moved to the Tacoma community. We quickly hit it off, and she became an unofficial mentor of mine. In addition, my official mentor (called accompanier in L’Arche) was Rosalie Russell–and Sue was like a daughter to Rosalie. (Sue gave the eulogy at Rosalie’s funeral.) There was a certain symmetry from the mentorship of these two women during my first couple of years as a L’Arche assistant. It’s something that I much valued then, and I still value to this day, now that I’ve been mentor to others.

Sue and I saw each other often enough at various gatherings: sometimes in Seattle, but more often in Tacoma or at a regional event of L’Arche or Faith & Light. We occasionally met up for lunch or dinner in Seattle, Tacoma, or Puyallup. I still remember she ordered a hearty burger at one of those meals, which looked fantastic and which apparently tasted fantastic. It might be the first time that I, who didn’t grow up with hamburgers, realized that there were burgers then there were burgers.

It was at another lunch when she gave me this collection of recipes as a birthday gift. It’s divided into no fewer than eight sections: appetizers, salad, fish, etc. I confess to not using this collection all that much, as it’s been the case with other cookbooks. More than once, though, I did use one of three pork chop recipes and it was good. One of the others is called “Rosalie’s pork chops,” an old-style recipe calling for blue cheese, thin ham, and Marsala wine. I could never part with this birthday gift. (On that note, Sue died in her sleep in the early morning after her birthday.)

It was March 2014 when I last saw Sue in person. During spring break, I took some Pepperdine students to L’Arche Seattle for a week of immersion. Thanks to the assistance of Gerry Scully, then community leader in Seattle, we were able to spend a work day at the Farm of L’Arche Tacoma. Sue was working at the community’s day center, and I dropped by for a short visit. It was about one year since the death of her father, and a little over two years since unexpected death of her dear friend and L’Arche companion Fr. Jim Boyle. It must have been so hard for Sue. But she kept on the work that gave deep meaning in the community that was her family.

This year has been uniquely difficult for several different reasons, including an accentuation of human cruelty, nationally and globally. As a result, I’ve resorted at times to my L’Arche past, including its ideals in compassion and justice, to help keeping myself steady. In the last four months, it included seeing friends from my L’Arche years: Penny Ecks Richichi (L’Arche in both Tacoma and Seattle), Rebecca Wold Freman (L’Arche Seattle), and Alison Hilkiah (L’Arche Portland). It was terrific catching up with these friends after years of not having seen them. But it was also reassurance and empowerment during a darkened time.

I also took a pause from the holidays for some recollections of my friendship with Sue Hudacek, who as a young woman of Czech ancestry left her northern Californian upbringing for the start of a life-long journey of service. It began in northern Canada before permanent settlement in the Northwest. She was essentially a North American West Coaster through and through.

In our early twenties, we assistants responded to the call of Jesus to serve humanity. The specificities about that call might have altered as we grew older. But so formative was that call that it’s never left the core of who we are and what we do today. Not only did Sue exemplify that youthful call, but as Fr. Jimmy and some others have done, her devotion, personally and professionally, was so complete that she herself became a core among the core members. May this Christian believer and servant of God and humanity rest in peace and power.

Read her obituary here.