In a way, Susan Whitney resembled the flowers and plants she loved so much.
She was quiet. She had strong roots that gave her life and provided stability. And she showed resilience in the face of a powerful storm – the headline-grabbing murder of her husband, Robert “Eli” Whitney – that tried to knock her over.
Whitney died last week in her home in Penacook at the age of 74. Her son, Brad Whitney, a mechanical engineer who lives in Epsom, said his mother had fought leukemia for years and had a weak heart.
“Her heart in spirit was strong, though,” Brad said.
Family and friends cited Susan’s devotion to Eli, whom she worked side-by-side with after he’d established his construction business.
They mentioned the unparalleled heartache she endured after a man went on a killing spree through two states in 2001, with Eli being the final of three victims as he spruced up a home in Meredith, a favor for a friend.
They talked about the land the Whitneys owned near their home, purchased for a song 50 years ago, which one day may be used to make Penacook a more attractive place to live with a grocery store and retail options.
But, most of all, they talked about her passion for gardening, that it stood strong like the grandest Redwood, that her touch adorned the Whitney’s Penacook Street home and kept Susan on track during rough times.
Her presence was a fixture, hunched over in her garden, gray hair popping from a purple visor, the bill covering her glasses and often a smile.
No, the plants and flowers weren’t perfectly aligned or anything like that, but that hardly mattered.
“It wasn’t necessarily about the beauty of the garden,” Brad said. “It was more about the work. Working outside is a good way to get your mind off of things. If it doesn’t look good in three weeks, you can always yank it out and start again. It was more of the doing than the results.”
Brad Whitney and others said Susan and Eli were prime examples of Yankee values and work ethic, cut from the same mold, the one that featured straightforwardness, loyalty and, sometimes, a tight hold on their emotions and thoughts.
Eli grew up near Morrill Farm, milking cows as a youth farmhand in the 1940s and ’50s. Meanwhile, Susan grew up on a farm in Webster.
“They knew how to build things and get things done,” Brad said.
Eli was the mouthpiece for this team, Susan the quiet support. Eli bought land off of Interstate 93, near Exit 17, in 1969, according to Laurie Rauseo, who, along with her husband, David Rauseo, have purchased about 10 of the 40 acres in an arduous process to bring business to Penacook.
Eli, it turned out, was thinking ahead.
“Things were not quite as expensive back then and he treated it as an investment,” Brad said. “He was a promoter of getting things into town and that was one of the things that went into that planning.”
Through the years, a common sight evolved: A husband and wife building together. Brad and his sister called their mom a “gopher.”
“She’d go for this and go for that,” Brad said.
She was always the silent partner, those who knew her best said.
Robert Gabrielli, a retired doctor, opened a family practice across the street from the town’s Union soldier nearly 40 years ago. He became good friends with the Whitneys. Eli helped him find office space and finance renovations. Susan was his patient.
“Very private person, very quiet,” Gabrielli told me. “She was a very reclusive lady, very shy, very generous with her time and energy, and she was warm.”
Ellen Langlais and her family have owned the Penacook Pharmacy in town for decades. She lost her husband, Larry Langlais, to Alzheimer’s disease seven years ago, on the same date Susan passed away. She said that made the loss of her friend “even more poignant.”
Langlais remembered a quiet woman as well. “She was shy until you got to know her,” Langlais said. “She was quiet, but if you asked her opinion, she was very forthright. I appreciated her and Eli and loved their way. A lovely person to know. She had great empathy for people.”
Langlais continued: “She loved her husband. It’s very sad she died and she had been suffering for a long time and hopefully she’s in the arms of Eli.”
Eli, a former city councilor who never met a local board he didn’t like, was 58 when he died in 2001. A Massachusetts drifter named Gary Sampson killed Eli, who was working on a friend’s home in Meredith. A series of appeals kept the story alive for years, until Sampson, out of legal options, was finally sentenced to death last year.
Brad became the family spokesperson after his father’s death, dealing with the media, working the land deal with Laurie and Dave Rouseo and sheltering his mother from the pain of addressing the topic.
“She kept her distance from most of that stuff for good mental reasons,” Brad told me. “It was very abusive, and I put myself through it so she didn’t have to.”
There was always gardening, a therapeutic office right outside the door, always open as long as the sun was out. Hours and hours a day, every day, seven days a week. Gabrielli, who used to bring his children to the Whitney house to enjoy the landscape and see the fish in a little family pool, learned techniques from Susan.
In fact, two years ago, Gabrielli began planting flowers through downtown Penacook, inspired by Susan.
“She taught me a lot,” the doctor told me. “Whenever I had a question I would ask her. She had a great knowledge with growing flowers and plants, and she sure helped me with my love of flowers and planting things.”
It didn’t matter that Susan had lost much of her mobility in recent weeks. Brad said that shortly before she died, there she was, riding her mower to cut the grass around her home.
Langlais said she’d take a detour onto Penacook Street rather than drive on Fisherville Road “just to look at her gardens, just because they were so beautiful.”
Added Brad, “It still looks pretty good.”
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Penacook Village Association, P.O. Box 6174, Penacook, 03303, or the NH Audubon Society, 84 Silk Farm Road, Concord, 03301.
A graveside funeral with family and close friends will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Woodlawn Cemetery on Village Street in Penacook.