Suzanne Mohr was looking forward to becoming a mother. And she would have been great because she was such a caring and thoughtful person, family members said.
“It didn’t matter if you were sick, or just had a hangnail,” said Eileen Riordan, her mother who lives in Bronxville, N.Y. “She cared deeply and wanted to make sure people were alright.”
And she was surrounded by people who cared deeply for her; among them was her husband of nine months, Shane Mohr. In fact, he loved her so much, he put his fear of heights aside to pop the big question in November 2010.
“I proposed to her at the top of [a building at] the Rockefeller Plaza in New York,” Mr. Mohr said. “I was holding on to her for dear life, and I told her I was terrified of heights, but I wasn’t scared to spend the rest of my life with her.”
The two married in Atlanta on July 30, just days before Mrs. Mohr’s 40th birthday, and in February they got amazing news: she was pregnant.
“She really wanted kids,” her husband said. “And we were excited.”
Around the same time, however, she began having significant back pain. But even in her pain, Mrs. Mohr continued to care for and check on friends and family.
“She was incredibly grounded spiritually,” said Mary Grafton, a friend from her freshman year of college, who lives in Atlanta. “She and Shane had a very strong spiritual connection.”
And it was that connection that would guide them through the whirlwind that would be the next two-and-a-half months. On March 21, Mrs. Mohr suffered a miscarriage and three days later she was diagnosed with a high-grade sarcoma, a form of cancer, which was primarily in her back.
“She started radiation immediately,” her husband said. “And we got her into a clinical trial, and she was supposed to start this week.”
Suzanne Riordan Mohr, of Atlanta, died Saturday from complications of the aggressive cancer. A funeral service has been planned for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Decatur. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.
Born in New York, N.Y., Mrs. Mohr grew up in Long Island, N.Y. and Birmingham, Mich. She began college at what is now known as Notre Dame of Maryland University. In 1991, she moved to Atlanta and enrolled at Oglethorpe University, where she earned a degree in communications, her husband said.
Dan Riordan marveled at his daughter’s ability to navigate the ups and downs of the economy.
“I called her our comeback kid,” he said. “She’d get on with a company, and then there would be cutbacks or something and she’d get laid off, so she’d start waitressing. She always managed to recover.”
In addition to her husband and parents, Mrs. Mohr is survived by her brother, Damian Riordan of Larchmont, N.Y. ; and two sisters Jennifer St. Amand of Lake Forest, Ill., and Elizabeth Jackson of Pasadena, Calif.
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