POWNAL - Susan W. Bradstreet, 73, passed away on Nov. 10, 2023 at Androscoggin Hospice House in Auburn with her loving husband Alan at her side after a long battle with dementia and cancer.She was born in Newton, Mass. and lived in Needham, Mass. until she entered the University of Maine in Orono where she graduated in 1972 with a degree in elementary education. She took pride in being a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and being chosen as an All Maine Woman. There she met her husband Alan with whom she would spend the next 51 years. After an early graduation, they married on Feb. 12, 1972 in Needham, Mass. While Alan was in the Air Force in Colorado Springs, Sue taught school locally, before they eventually returned to New England and settled down in Pownal, Maine in 1976, where they lived until her passing.
She took great pride in returning to school to receive a Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies from Antioch New England in Keene, N.H. in 1991, using that education in her future teaching endeavors. One of her favorite jobs was taking a live owl to Maine classrooms for the Chewonki Foundation. Another was working as a naturalist at Maine Audubon. She taught in a number of different schools, worked at Bradbury Mountain and Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Parks, and at LL Bean, and eventually worked as manager for her husband’s woodworking business, until she retired when the business was sold in 2012. Flower and vegetable gardening, walking with friends near her country home, co-counseling and reading were life long favorites. In later years, she settled into a routine of meeting with friends at the Brunswick Landing YMCA for exercise classes, where those friends supported her with care and understanding through her final days. In her retirement, a new family of friends, from winters spent with her husband in Venice, Fla., were an important part of her life. There she enjoyed walks on the beach, the birds, the sea life, yoga, concerts, thrift shopping and dining.
She will be remembered for her sense of humor, her infectious warm smile that always lit up a room, and her caring and loving personality.
