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Amy C. Moore (Sue Owens)

Amy Cecelia Moore, known to her friends and family as Sue Owens, died on Feb. 11 in Guilford. She was born in Westfield, New Jersey, on Oct. 19, 1944. She was loved and admired by the many people, whose lives and surroundings she made more beautiful with her gift for friendship and her skill as a gardener. She designed, planted, and maintained gardens in Guilford for many years. Her friends were both young and old; they were people who led many different kinds of lives.

Her love of nature expressed itself not only in her gardening, but in her compassion for animals, her care for the environment, and her paintings and drawings - mostly of plants and animals. Her gardens were works of art, as well as evidence of her astonishing capacity for the sheer physical labor it took to create them and keep them thriving. Sue wasted nothing, not time, not money, not anything that could be re-used, replanted, reshaped, or recycled, and certainly not her own talents and abilities. Her compost heap was an inspiration to others. Sue learned something new every day; her life was one of continuing education. She read books and attended classes, and she also learned from her colleagues and friends, in fact from anyone who could teach her. She was trained in massage therapy (an expression also of her compassion) and skillful at haircutting (an expression of her visual talents). She could remember and recite the Latin names of hundreds of plants.

Her family is grateful to Connecticut Hospice and to Nana Sekyiwa Bradley, whose loving and graceful care allowed Sue to die at home surrounded by those she loved.

Besides her son, Kenneth Lee Owens, she is survived by two grandchildren, Lee Ethric Owens and Mia Bernice Owens-Tilton; her partner Jim Nelson; and her daughter-in-law Ellen Tilton, all of Guilford; a sister, Kate Fowler Heckle and a brother Luke Fowler, both of New Hampshire.

Donations in memory of her life may be made to Special Olympics Connecticut, 2666 State St., Ste. #1, Hamden, CT 06517. Services were held at the Hawley Lincoln Memorial, 1315 Boston Post Road, Guilford on Feb. 16.