Obituary of Valerie Patricia Sutton

Valerie Patricia Sutton entered eternal rest on Saturday, December 5, 2020. Valerie was born on March 30, 1932, in the United Kingdom, and later immigrated to the United States, where she raised her children.

She always carried a special bond for England and her family on both sides of the pond. Throughout the years, return trips to England were filled with barbecues, sailing adventures, and traditional British fare (e.g., roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, bangers and mash, toad in the hole, bubbles and squeak, steak and kidney pie, spotted dick steamed pudding, and scones of all varieties). Her children, Lisa, Paul, Melanie, and Christopher, grew up with shepherd’s pie as a staple meal and regularly enjoyed fish and chips with her (whenever a local restaurant could prepare it in the proper English way, of course!).

After settling in the United States, Valerie never lost her passion for English tea, and all varieties of flavors and brands could be found in any place she lived. She also loved to watch British comedies and detective shows. Her work experience included a position at NATO in Paris and owning her own secretarial business. As a life-long learner, she returned to college after her retirement to earn an Associate’s degree from Brevard Community College. Valerie often shared stories of her life experiences of growing up during World War II and instilled in all those close to her an understanding of the world’s shared grief from those events and our responsibilities to not repeat the errors of these past experiences.

A special thank you to all the amazing staff of Zon Beachside, the assisted living community that Valerie called home, and to the wonderful specialists with Ageility who became family to Valerie during weekly rehabilitation sessions in more recent years. Our family will be forever thankful to these individuals for the compassion and joy they brought Valerie each day, with kind words, encouraging conversations, fresh flowers, or a cup of tea or coffee. We share in the collective loss, and we will carry her memories in our hearts knowing the peace it brought our mother.

Her final resting place will include the ocean waters she loved so dearly, from the United States to the United Kingdom.

In lieu of flowers and donations, please consider enjoying a proper full English breakfast with someone close to you in the coming weeks, with piping hot cups of coffee. Or, enjoy an afternoon with your loved ones, complete with steaming hot tea, finger sandwiches, flavorful scones, clotted cream, and jam or other sweet pastries and cakes. In either case, Valerie will be smiling right there with you. Then, after you eat, go get some exercise of some sort, and Valerie will be right there too, whispering to you one of her favorite encouragements: “You can do it, I know you can!”