Tunbridge, Vt. — Susan Mertz Zeigfinger died in the early hours of Wednesday, April 25, 2018, at the Menig Nursing Home in Randolph, Vt., from the side effects of Alzheimer’s disease. She had celebrated her seventy-ninth birthday the day before and had visited with all of the people who had been keeping her company for the past few months. It had been a good day and, in addition to several friends, she spent her final evening in the company of a friend’s dog who was curled up with her in bed until midnight (there was no greater comfort to Susan than having an animal nearby). So, while the last two years had been challenging, her final hours were peaceful.

Susan was born and raised in the Sunbury/Northumberland region of central Pennsylvania, which she always spoke of with pride and affection. Her middle years took her to New York City, San Francisco, and Florence, Italy, a city she loved and wanted everyone to visit, before a marriage brought her to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. She held a number of administrative positions before finding her way to being a librarian, which was the logical extension of her life-long love of books. She moved to the Upper Valley in 1985 to become the technical services librarian at Vermont Law School, where she worked for the next 25 years.

Susan loved literature, art, poetry, music (her grand piano was one of her most prized possessions), songbirds, cheese, travel, New Yorker cartoons, articles about retirement investing, Snoopy, true crime stories, and Ellen. She also loved writing; she kept her own journals as well as collected words of writers she loved. Most of all she loved animals, cats in particular. She was never happier than when puttering around her home in Tunbridge, tending to her flower gardens or sipping a glass of wine in the late afternoon with a cat by her side.

Susan was predeceased by her parents, Glenn and Lucille Mertz, and her brother, Russell Mertz. She is survived by her nieces, Jennifer Mertz of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and Stephanie Mertz of Minneapolis, Minn., and a nephew, Christopher Mertz of Albany, Ore. She also leaves behind her friend, Pat Murphy of Plainfield, Vt., whose visits the past few years were so important to Susan; her friend, Abby Armstrong of Sharon, Vt., with whose family and friends she spent many a Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration over the past 30 years; her friend, Susan Tortolano of Royalton, Vt., who, along with her dog, Bella, brought so much joy to Susan in the final years of her life as well as the many other friends that Susan made throughout her life.

We will share memories from those friends at a celebration of Susan’s life at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 2, at the Royalton Academy Building in Royalton, Vt. We also encourage you to honor Susan’s love of books by making a donation in Susan’s name to the Royalton Memorial Library, P.O. Box 179, South Royalton, VT 05068. Arrangements by Day Funeral Home.

As anyone who has dealt with Alzheimer’s knows, the disease can strip people of their independence and dignity. Over the last two years there was no shortage of frustration on Susan’s part, but there was also an abundance of love, humor, and kindness from her family, friends and caregivers, which, in the end, made all the difference.