Susanne Elizabeth [Susie] Vanzant Hassell

Knoxville, TN

suhassell@gmail.com

I got a master's in Child and Family at Univ. of TN, Knoxville, then founded and directed 3 preschools in my career. Our home has been a hospitable place for many through the years. Because we live close to UT, many college students have adopted us as their "home away from home" and I've spent much of the past 20 years in my kitchen!

I now lead Holy Paths ministry and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Seminary in 2013.

I'm most fully alive in nature - hiking, gardening, photographing. Leading retreats has become a way to bring together everything I love: nature, solitude, scripture, poetry, art, music, and people sharing life in a safe, supportive community. I recently published two books: Pilgrim Walk in the Woods and Pilgrim Walk at the Sea.

Thanks to many of you who supported me during my bout with cancer in 2011. I am in complete remission and have much to be grateful for - including you dear friends who walked with me so many years ago.

After graduation my daddy was trying to comfort me as I wept, saying "these friends will pass away and be forgotten and you'll make new friends." Certainly I've been blessed with many new friendships, but I realized at the reunion that many of you are still very precious to me.
THANKS to all of you who worked so hard to make the reunions possible!

Daddy also said that our music would "never last!"