00:00:11:22 - 00:00:39:22 Unknown Hi, I'm Gail. Hi, I'm Katherine. Welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined. Our award winning weekly podcast. Now, in its sixth year, is that women over 70.com to explore our offerings and join the aging reimagined circle. Our free online community where women of all ages connect, share and re-imagine aging as a time of creativity, growth, and empowerment. And we're glad you are here with us today. 00:00:39:24 - 00:01:06:13 Unknown And today, we're happy to have Suzy Edwards in the in the studio with us and Suzy. Hello. We're delighted to have you. Hi. Yeah, hi. So Suzy is 81 and no stranger to living on the edge. She was born in New York in the 40s. Her grandfather was a chemist and bootlegger and opened a rum distillery in the Virgin Islands in 1950. 00:01:06:13 - 00:01:12:22 Unknown Built a hotel in Saint Thomas and moved his entire family to the Virgin Islands. 00:01:12:24 - 00:01:28:17 Unknown Suzy was a friend of Brian Jones and was sorry that he drowned in a pool in which they had once been swimming. Her life seems to move by whim. Once a London clothing designer, she would make her own clothes and wear them for runway shows. 00:01:28:19 - 00:01:54:20 Unknown Public art became her passion for a period of time, and she created huge mosaics and buildings which can be viewed in Tampa, Clearwater, in Orlando, Florida and elsewhere. Since 1973, yoga, meditation and breathing have been an important part of Susie's life. She believes in the health benefits of marijuana and grows it in her backyard. Susie is full of purpose. 00:01:54:22 - 00:02:20:10 Unknown Her memoir, Quiet Mind, Crazy Heart, and her children's stories about the doggos and her beautiful illustrations. Help us understand the multi facets of her mind. Susie. Welcome to women over 70. Aging the imagined. We are so happy to have you and I am happy to be here. That was a wonderful introduction. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. 00:02:20:12 - 00:02:46:20 Unknown So let's start our conversation by asking if you would share more of your time when you were designer and how did it all begin? Well, I was living in London. First of all, I went to a progressive boarding school called the Stockbridge School, and it was for the Odd Kids. Actually, in my graduating class, Chevy Chase was the valedictorian and I was the salutatorian, and I somehow talked my way into Cornell. 00:02:47:01 - 00:03:07:08 Unknown Actually, I had applied and my grades were okay. I wasn't wasn't a scholar. So I got rejected. But they sent the rejection letter to the Virgin Islands, and I was in boarding school in Massachusetts, didn't know, made an appointment, went there and talked my way in. So they accepted me, went to the school, did not like it did, was just too big. 00:03:07:08 - 00:03:23:09 Unknown Wasn't I was used to a small group of people and it just wasn't for me. So I left, went back to New York City, was living in the maid's room at my auntie's house, and really didn't know what to do with myself. And my parents were very worried that I was going to get into trouble, and I would have gotten into trouble. 00:03:23:14 - 00:03:43:17 Unknown So they sent me to live in London. My father had a business partner who had kids my age, and he sent me to live with them. And it was great because it was right in the swinging 60s, and it turned out that I just loved clothes, and it was Carnaby Street. And I turned out that I had a gift and I could draw well. 00:03:43:17 - 00:04:03:09 Unknown And I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and looked at all the costumes and just started drawing clothes and got into the London College of Fashion, went there just for one year. But it was enough. And I learned what I needed to learn. And then when I went back to New York to do an amazing synchronicity, it's a great story. 00:04:03:09 - 00:04:12:21 Unknown It's in my book. How I landed this amazing job, because it didn't come about any ordinary way. And most of my life does. Things don't happen in ordinary ways. 00:04:12:23 - 00:04:27:03 Unknown That's very interesting. So. So you what kinds of designs did you do? Well, I was, you know, in my 20s, I was around 21, 22. And I designed for girls like me, clothes for people like me. 00:04:27:03 - 00:04:48:05 Unknown And so I was hired by this company, and I did two lines for them. One was called Petite by Susie. There was another one called stop because everybody was wearing those, I can't remember. There's called those one piece onesie things that they were wearing jumpsuits. And so that was a jumpsuit line. And so I designed for this company for a couple of years. 00:04:48:07 - 00:05:03:11 Unknown Then I met this very cute English guy. We got married and we took off and went and lived in the Virgin Islands for a couple of years. So I quit my job. And then it didn't work out down in the Virgin. So we came back to New York, got another job, an even better job. And I did really, really well. 00:05:03:11 - 00:05:25:14 Unknown And the company made millions of dollars based on my designs. So was it was something because I never had much self-esteem. I've been wearing glasses since I was two. I'm actually legally blind. I'm actually blind to one. I can only see blurry. Can't be corrected. So, you know, I didn't have the best self-esteem. But after I had success, my whole sense of self changed a bit. 00:05:25:14 - 00:05:47:16 Unknown I felt like I was something that. So. So you said 1973 was a turning point in your life? Is that when this happened or something? Oh, no. This was back in the 60s. So I got married in 68 and got divorced in 71. It was just, you know, wasn't the right thing. It was the right thing at the time. 00:05:47:16 - 00:06:07:01 Unknown But it wasn't wasn't long term. And I just really didn't know what to do with myself. So I that's when I quit work. And I was living in New York City. So I hitchhiked up to Woodstock, and it was after the Woodstock Festival had been. And I just hitchhiked up there and just kind of made my way and made friends and found a place to live. 00:06:07:01 - 00:06:24:20 Unknown I had some money because I did very well as a designer. And and I've always been kind of frugal. I mean, I always spent what I wanted to, but always save some. So I had some money. So I just rented a little place and just hung out and I got into, you know, learning the tarot cards. And it was when yoga was just coming out and about. 00:06:24:22 - 00:06:55:21 Unknown And after a time in Woodstock, then I went back to live in Washington, DC, where my parents were actually, my father was George McGovern's finance chairman when he ran for president in 72. So I figured, well, let me get involved in the campaign. So I went back there and, oh, this is a really good story. They lived in this big townhouse on California Street, which is on Embassy Row, and there was this huge, these two huge storage room, and they were filled with all these bags that people were sending to government with letters, with money in it, and they had them stored in this big and this big rooms and the house. 00:06:55:21 - 00:07:16:11 Unknown But anyway, so that was that was 72. Then of course, McGovern lost. We know that he lost to Nixon. And so I just started getting into yoga. I was very interested in yoga. There was a restaurant called the Golden Temple of Conscious Cookery, that I helped out, and it was a vegetarian restaurant, and I helped work in the kitchen, you know, peeling carrots and potatoes and stuff. 00:07:16:17 - 00:07:39:10 Unknown And then I saw a sign for a teacher training, in Paradise Island, Bahamas, with Swami Vishnu. Dave Ananda, one month. You go and you stay there for a month. You live in a tent and you do yoga teacher training, which I did which. And then I became fascinated by it. I mean, I love doing yoga, and I became really fascinated by the Bhagavad Gita and Krishna. 00:07:39:12 - 00:08:08:15 Unknown And when I went back to Washington after this, this one month was over, I found out there was a Krishna temple nearby, and I started going there and the next thing I know, I decided to move in. And I lived there for three years, not in that particular place, but I lived. I worked as a Christian devotee for three years, and you might have seen me at an airport, you know, back, back in the day, trying to hustle you to give me 20 bucks for a Krishna book so that those are interesting times. 00:08:08:15 - 00:08:29:13 Unknown Wow. For sure. And so tell us, when did you when did you write your memoir? I wrote my memoir during the pandemic, and here is what it looks like. And I don't know if there's people going to see, but but so I wrote during the pandemic and the reason I wrote it is people said, oh, you know, you've got such great stories, you should write a book. 00:08:29:14 - 00:08:57:15 Unknown You know, a bunch of people told me this, and I didn't have any else to do. You know, we're all stuck in the house. So I just started writing and then I got people to help me with it. Edit had read it, and then it turns out that I have a very talented niece who, self publishes and makes hundreds of thousand dollars a year doing these sort of feminist, murder mystery books where the the girl and the dog always win and the bad guys always lose. 00:08:57:15 - 00:09:20:00 Unknown So she helped me get this together. She, you know, I hired her and her friend, her formatter, and they put the book together with my help, obviously. So lots of rewrites. You know, when you write a book, I mean, you I've had at least 3 or 4 different people read it and edited. So, you know, took me a year, maybe a year and a half and then, you know, it's available on Amazon. 00:09:20:02 - 00:09:39:04 Unknown I, I don't have a regular publisher because I don't have a background as a writer. So I'm not really looking for a regular publisher for that, but I am for the doggos. So that is the dog I, I started about five years ago. What is that about? The dog goes, well, the dog goes the dog. This is a children's book series. 00:09:39:09 - 00:09:56:00 Unknown And each and I do the illustrations on an iPad, and that's one of the synchronistic stories, is I was on a plane about ten years ago, and there was a guy sitting next to me doing this really elaborate drawing on an iPad and and of course, I'm an artist. So I said, well, what are you doing? And he said, oh, it's procreate. 00:09:56:04 - 00:10:13:19 Unknown I just came from teaching a workshop. And I said, wow, and you can download this program for $5, and I do all my illustrations. So what you can do is you can, like, this girl was a different girl. I'd put the crown on or I put the dog in. That background was a fabric that was a different color. 00:10:13:19 - 00:10:34:19 Unknown I changed the color. So you just can kind of go together and you can just make these drawings up with all these images that then you adapt them and draw over them and paint over them. So I just started writing them, and then I taught myself this program and I just became obsessed with doing it. So, six books down, there's six that are for sale on Amazon. 00:10:35:00 - 00:10:53:15 Unknown I'm working on the seventh. I have an agent. They're actually toy agents, and they're not regular literary agents, and they haven't sold the series, even though I've been with them for four years. But they did encourage me and helped me get them to this point where I did. I do have books and they are available on Amazon. 00:10:53:19 - 00:11:09:03 Unknown I think they have in Barnes and Noble, but I really do need a regular publisher, so that's something that I think my contract with them expires in a couple of months, and if they don't have a deal by then, I'll move it on, find somebody else. What are the stories about the dogs? Each one is about a child and a dog. 00:11:09:03 - 00:11:29:12 Unknown Or in one case, there's about two boys. Twin boys. This is actually my nephew story. My nephew's gay and he met his partner, and they adopted these beautiful little Latino boys. There were infant. They're preemie infants. They, like, wait a pound. When they were born, and they're wonderful dads. So the two dads have these two sons. Now the boys are. 00:11:29:12 - 00:11:51:21 Unknown I think they're turning 11. So they're my brothers, sons, grandchildren, and they're my great nephews, the children. So I wrote a book about them and these two boys and and this and that story. They end up adopting the two dads. Take them to the shelter to get a small dog, because one of the dads had a Chihuahua when he was young and he loved it. 00:11:52:00 - 00:12:10:11 Unknown And of course, they fall in love with the biggest dog in the place, which is a Great Pyrenees mountain dog. Well, big now and big now had been a farm dog. But the people, the older couple that on the farm had to go to assisted living. So they had to take Nell to the shelter. And so now becomes these boys dog and it's beautiful story really is. 00:12:10:13 - 00:12:30:15 Unknown But I want to go back to your memoir for a moment and ask you how the name came about. Quiet, man. And everything just pops in my mind, you know? I mean, it just doesn't. I originally it was called autobiography of an Out of shape Yogi, and my niece said, that's a terrible title. You're not out of shape. 00:12:30:18 - 00:12:46:19 Unknown Nobody wants to read a book about somebody who's out of shape. I still think it's a much cooler title, but because they said no, no, you know, there were I was doing what they told me to do. So I just I had to come up with another name and just stuff just comes to me. And then you talked about me smoking marijuana and that does help. 00:12:46:19 - 00:13:09:10 Unknown That helps creativity. I grow it in the garden. I haven't grown any now because I'm moving from this house into a townhouse. But in New York State, you can just go and buy it in a store. So it's no big deal. But I just find I don't take a lot of medication. So I find that this is, you know, just keeps me happy and curious about the title because you don't strike me as having a quiet mind. 00:13:09:12 - 00:13:33:07 Unknown Crazy heart. Well, I don't, yeah, I probably don't, but I can't make it quiet. That's the thing. I do meditate on a regular basis. You know, not for long periods. I meditate every morning for like 10 or 15 minutes, and then I meditate a lot. When I'm laying in bed and I do breathing, I just work on breathing and and count the breaths and let the breath, you know, calm my mind. 00:13:33:09 - 00:13:49:12 Unknown Are you, do you are you still teaching yoga or doing yoga. Yeah I do a little yoga I do now. I'm 81 you know I had shoulder surgery now, now I can have, now I got a knee problem. So the yoga helps. Yeah I do, I do some simple yoga. But I really messed up my shoulder from doing to vigorous yoga. 00:13:49:14 - 00:14:08:10 Unknown I'm not going to classes. I just do it at home. Well, you know, your memoir is quite interesting and wonderful, and so we we'd love for you to read a little selection from that. Do you want to do that? Well, sure. I can read the introduction. Okay. If you want. Well, I'll just start meeting you. Just tell me when I'm reading. 00:14:08:10 - 00:14:21:13 Unknown Too long. Okay? Okay. Let me take a sip of water here. 00:14:21:15 - 00:14:44:16 Unknown My first introduction to yoga came through Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, with bandmates Mick and Keith. It was 1966, and the stones were in New York on the concert tour. At the time, I worked as a clothing designer and ran with the trendy crowd of artists, writers and movie people I had met Brian a year earlier during the stones 1965 U.S tour tour. 00:14:44:18 - 00:15:10:06 Unknown My friend, producer Philip Vernoff, A Clockwork Orange, invited my gorgeous, gorgeous actress girlfriend Andrea to dinner with the Stones at Elaine's, the place to dine in Manhattan. Presided over by flamboyant owner Elaine Kaufman. So I was hoping to coax Mick Jagger into playing Alex in the movie. I had set up the date between Andrea and Sy. She was going to dinner with the stones and I was not invited. 00:15:10:08 - 00:15:30:03 Unknown I paced and pondered and then turned my MBA into action and devised a plan. Hey girlfriend, you have to help me out here after all, I set you up with Sy. I coax my friend, go to the pay phone and call me when you're getting close to dessert, and I'll just walk in and say hello and go get a drink at the bar. 00:15:30:05 - 00:15:58:18 Unknown I arrived dressed to seduce and a miniskirt, thigh high red boots, a bustier, contact lenses to show off my sea green eyes and my long hair bleached platinum. Everyone was sitting at a big round table, surprised to see me, so I jumped up. Susie. Kiss kiss. Come join us. He pulled up a chair between him and Brian. Brian was going through a painful breakup with his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg at the time, and there was an immediate attraction between us. 00:15:58:20 - 00:16:19:17 Unknown I was a type of cheeky, leggy blond that he fancied, and he was one of the first beautiful, damaged men whom I craved. After dinner, we all piled into the limos and headed back to suites at the New York Hilton. The chemistry between Brian and me was palpable. It could be felt in the limo, hot and steamy like the summer sky before it rains. 00:16:19:19 - 00:16:46:23 Unknown Back at the hotel, Mick and Brian and some gorgeous groupie, Cindy and I hung out in the living room of Brian's suite. Two of the girls, Heather, an exquisite redhead, and Devin, a stunning black beauty, were each over six feet tall. Heather Taylor ended up marrying brother Roger Daltrey of The Who and Devin Wilson. Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady died in 1971, one year after Jimmy, she fell from a window at the Chelsea Hotel. 00:16:47:02 - 00:17:13:21 Unknown She was 28. Oh, that's enough, a short, stocky. Do you want me to keep reading? This was enough, The corner agreed. It really got a short, stocky man who looked Italian, mobbed. Arrived soon after we did. He was dressed in a suit carrying a small suitcase, which he opened on the coffee table. Cocaine, marijuana, hash and colored pills and glass bottles, all neatly arranged under a false bottom. 00:17:13:23 - 00:17:35:14 Unknown The drug buffet was laid out onto a tray. Brian got up, took a snort, a blow and put on some records B.B. King, John Lee hooker, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, soulful, sexy blues snake from the speakers, the lights were low, the room's smoky and the music seductive. There was very little conversation. Everyone was just grooving on the vibes. 00:17:35:16 - 00:18:00:23 Unknown Heather and Devin got up and started a slow erotic dance, grinding their hips and moving their bodies like flowing water. They danced with each other, with themselves and with the room. Eyes have closed and lips parted. They were each perfect, with full breasts, tiny waists and long legs, short skirts barely covered there put them. After a while Mick got up, took each girl by the hand and led them out of the room. 00:18:01:00 - 00:18:19:00 Unknown It was late in sex. I and Andrea rose to leave. He had to work recording. She had to work recording her soap opera. The next morning I got up with them and we headed down the hall to the elevator. Brian came after us. Please don't go. He coaxed me with his famous seductive smile. He took my hand. He was adorable. 00:18:19:00 - 00:18:27:14 Unknown British and a rolling stone. I could not leave. That's. We better stop there. Yes. It gets it gets steamy, 00:18:27:14 - 00:18:38:07 Unknown reading, reading the whole memoir is just like I got, you know, I sent it in for cookies. Review. I had to pay, but I paid and I got a great review and they said, buy the book. 00:18:38:12 - 00:18:59:11 Unknown So that made me feel really good. I mean, when you're self-published author and you never even went to college, you know, you just don't know if you're any good. But it seems that did I I'm pretty good. So let's see. Let's be happy. That's great. So what's next for you? Well, I'm working on the doggos. I'm moving next month. 00:18:59:13 - 00:19:20:23 Unknown So that's a big deal. I mean, I have a beautiful house. I built this gorgeous house right near the Omega Institute, and it's really isolated. And I never see a person. I see the gardener once a week in the maid. And, you know, I have a few friends, but I decided I found a big, beautiful townhouse in the village of Rhinebeck where I can kind of walk to stores and just get out and about because I'm not. 00:19:21:04 - 00:19:38:08 Unknown I'm more of a sociable person. I don't I'm not an isolated type of person. So. But I didn't even make it to the market. The realtor brought somebody over, that was looking for a house before it was even listed, and they bought it for full asking price. So, so next month I'm closing on the one moving into. 00:19:38:08 - 00:19:57:17 Unknown They're closing on this one, you know, so it's just a lot. So that's what's going on. And then just working on the dog a book. So that's that's my main thing I need to find a publisher. So if anybody's listening can look me up. Right. So, Susie, Gail introduced you as a no stranger to living on the edge. 00:19:57:19 - 00:20:16:07 Unknown She's right. Do you have any regrets about living the living the life? Glad I didn't think so. Not at all. Not at all? No. I feel very grateful for my life. I. I feel grateful every day, you know, and I work. I work on gratitude. The other day I was so grumpy and I was grateful at all. And I was like, oh, shit. 00:20:16:07 - 00:20:35:13 Unknown Dishes in the say, you know, and just, just the sort of things that, that everybody does every day do you just get bored with and you just don't want to do? And then I said, look, just you have a nice warm water to do them in five minutes you'll be done. So I did it and then I went for a walk and I said, look, you know, we can all be grumpy, so we're going to choose grumpy or grateful. 00:20:35:17 - 00:20:40:18 Unknown So gratitude. Sometimes you have to make yourself be grateful. You have to remind yourself to be grateful. 00:20:40:20 - 00:20:48:15 Unknown you know, but I don't like to feel sorry for myself even when, you know, things are tough, you know, now, I'm 81, I've got some health issues that I'm dealing with and I know I'll get through them. 00:20:48:21 - 00:21:07:01 Unknown I've been through a lot of, if you remember, I've been through a lot of crazy health issues in my life and and I get through them. Yeah. So. So do you think about your own aging at all? Doesn't sound like it. Not really. I don't think about it. Just, you know, I mean, I noticed that just in this last year. 00:21:07:06 - 00:21:22:08 Unknown I mean, now I have arthritis in my knee. And, you know, I've been having some high blood pressure that I'm dealing with and trying to find out why. And, you know, getting tests and, you know, getting to the bottom of it and figuring out what I can do to not have high blood pressure. So, you know, I'm working on that. 00:21:22:08 - 00:21:40:01 Unknown So it's just everything is just a challenge, you know, because what what people forget about when they're living their lives is that everybody dies. I mean, that's something that in the whole yoga process, you see, death is it's an inevitable thing. So we live we lead our lives knowing that we're going to die. So we don't want to die with regrets. 00:21:40:01 - 00:22:01:10 Unknown I mean, that's one thing we don't want now, even I just had this this unpleasant experience with, with with a friend that came in and she just seemed to be a troubled soul. And she was really quite abusive of me. And at the end of the time here, you know, I just kind of didn't say anything. I just said, you know, have a safe trip home. 00:22:01:10 - 00:22:15:12 Unknown And I took her number and I deleted it from my phone. And I said, I don't really want anything to do with her, but I also don't have to be mean. The old Susie, the younger Susie would have, you know, sent her a text and said, look, I don't want to be your friend anymore and gotten into a whole thing. 00:22:15:12 - 00:22:22:16 Unknown And I said, no, just deleting her number. I mean, and if she calls me, I'll say, well, I wish you well, but I don't really think we can be friends. 00:22:22:22 - 00:22:34:13 Unknown So I don't want to waste time with anything negative. And when negativity comes, you know, I just try to brush it aside like with this person. And, and just move on to the next thing because everything changes every minute. 00:22:34:13 - 00:22:39:15 Unknown That's one thing that the Buddha said that we know for sure is impermanence, that nothing stays the same. 00:22:39:19 - 00:22:53:11 Unknown what else did they say that could help the Buddha as. Let's see. What did he say. Craving thing. The, the cause of suffering is twofold craving. Wanting something that you don't have and clinging, trying to hold onto something. 00:22:53:16 - 00:23:15:00 Unknown I mean I had I have these beautiful little grand children now I have these, my son Theo, he's adorable. He's like just turned 42 and he's a doctor. And he married another doctor. They met in residency, and they're very happy. They're a gorgeous couple. They're so happy. And they have the beautiful little children. You goes three and a half and June is one and a half, and they live in Seattle. 00:23:15:06 - 00:23:36:03 Unknown And for me, that lives on the east coast of New York and Florida. I wasn't happy when they moved out there, but I understand why they moved out there and they moved out there because her parents are Canadian Ukrainian, and they live in Vancouver, and they are always there for them. They're young. They're they're in their 60s and they take the kids so Theo and Oksana can go on vacation. 00:23:36:05 - 00:23:53:06 Unknown I mean, it was really the right thing for them, even though it was the wrong thing for me. So now, I mean, they're actually coming next week. We have a big family wedding next weekend. So my kids I have another son, William, who's a lawyer. He lives in Miami, and his wife and my step granddaughter, who's 20 now. 00:23:53:08 - 00:24:10:11 Unknown So they're all coming, for this wedding next weekend. So I'll see the grandchildren then they're coming to Florida and, December. And then I go out there. I just go out there and spend a couple of weeks. So even though it's not how I would have planned it, but once I have accepted it, I make the best of it and it works for me. 00:24:10:16 - 00:24:13:13 Unknown That's a beautiful message to end it. It's indeed. 00:24:13:15 - 00:24:28:18 Unknown and thanks for listening. To women over 70 year loyalty helps our community thrive, and we invite you to get more involved in the Aging Reimagined circle. Add your voice as we challenge and myths and create bold new narratives about women and aging. 00:24:28:20 - 00:25:02:11 Unknown Visit women over 70.com to learn more. And women over 70 is proud to be part of The Age Wise Collective, a group of women podcasters championing pro aging voices. This week, we shine the light on Alana Landsberg, Louis host of Wisdom at Work, Older Women, Elder women and Grandmothers on the move, she features energizing and inspiring conversations with older women, activists and artists the world over and you can find her Wisdom at Work podcast archive.