Susan Bard was a friend to everyone she met.
“There’s a line, I don’t know what movie it’s from, but strangers are only friends you’ve never met. That’s the way my mom lived her life,” said her daughter, Corinna Matteliano. “My mom was joy. She sought joy in everything she did. She saw joy in everybody she met.”
A well-known and well-liked figure in the community, Bard died last week following a hit and run while riding her bicycle on Victoria Road. She was 78, turning 79. A Guelph man has been charged.
“We lost my mom on her 79th birthday. She died doing what she loved. The woman was 78 years old and still rode her bike everywhere,” said Matteliano, one of three children alongside Sheryl and Stephen Ignace.
“Cycling was not just a means of transportation but a way to connect with the world around her. Her enthusiasm for biking mirrored her approach to life – embracing each journey with curiosity, resilience, and a smile,” said long-time friend Valerie Langlois.
Bard was well-known in the community: working as an usher at the Sleeman Centre at Guelph Storm games, as a member of St. James Anglican Church and volunteering for just about everything she could.
She volunteered to do taxes for seniors, and with the Guelph Hiking Trail Club, Action Read, Hope House, the Guelph Youth Music Centre, the Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation, the Guelph Horticultural Society and more.
“She’s incredible. The thing is, we knew, but as we dig further and further through all of this, I have no idea how she did everything she did.”
Bard loved sports, as well as music – the last CD she listened to was The Band, and she was in the middle of reading a biography on Muddy Waters.
But gardening was one of her biggest passions.
“There are so many community gardens that have my mom’s handprints all over them,” she said. “Gardening is a perfect metaphor for her, because she just tried to make everything beautiful.”
Bard helped Matteliano grow her own garden, which is now home to a 15 foot tall sunflower plant.
“Every time I look at my garden, I think of her,” she said.
She didn’t just have a green thumb – she engrossed herself in the knowledge about it, knowing all the Latin names of plants.
“She researched her butt off. She knew the back history of everything,” she said.
“Gardening was more than just a hobby for Sue; it was a reflection of her nurturing soul. Each plant she tended to, each flower she nurtured, and each harvest she celebrated was a manifestation of her patience and love,” Langlois said.
Her work with the Guelph Youth Music Centre, where she met Langlois, combined her love of music and gardening.
“For more than a decade Sue tended the gardens at The Guelph Youth Music Centre on Cardigan Street. Her tenure there began with her admiring the garden beds as she passed by, casually picking out a few weeds. Recognizing the need, she took on the beds voluntarily and only a few years later did the gardens officially come under the auspices of the Guelph Horticultural Society,” said GHS member Elaine Harris.
“Her enthusiasm was contagious, and she will truly be missed,” she said.
Bard was born and raised in Guelph, and lived here until leaving for nursing school in Niagara Falls, where she stayed after marrying her former husband and the father of her children. For 34 years she worked as a registered nurse at Greater Niagara General Hospital.
She moved back when her father became sick more than 20 years ago, and hadn’t left since.
When Bard was a teenager, she broke her back, and has had a rod in her spine since then.
“She still lived. She was also a member of a Tai Chi club. All of these things, people half her age couldn’t do, and she was doing them with a rod in her spine.”
Bard was also a cancer survivor, diagnosed with bowel cancer in her 30s.
“They removed a good chunk of her colon. She was told she could pretty much die,” she said. “She basically lived life to its absolute (fullest) because she consistently said she felt like she was living on borrowed time.
“I take great pride in the sense that I’ve always been a fighter, and I like to think a lot of that came from her. And she got a lot of that from her mom. We come from a long line of very strong, strong women.”
Going through her belongings, Matteliano found “pictures upon pictures” of her family, and address books showing Bard kept in touch with and made time for just about everyone.
“She would try her best to consistently be a part of their lives, in some way, shape or form, and just help. She always wanted to help. She was generous to a fault.”
“Her commitment to volunteering was nothing short of inspiring,” Langlois said. “Her selflessness was a testament to her character, leaving a lasting impact on countless lives.”
In whatever free time she had, when she wasn’t with her family or riding her bike or gardening, she was sewing.
Growing up, she would make her kids clothes – not because they couldn’t afford to buy them, “it was just something she loved.”
The last thing she was working on was crocheting snowflakes for the holiday bazaar at her church.
“She deserved everything she got and more, except for how it ended. She didn’t deserve that.”
“She’s gonna be missed so much. We just hope anybody who had the pleasure of being with her cherishes that for the gift that it was.”
Matteliano said she and her siblings have been trying to figure out what charity to tell people to donate to in her memory, but decided any charity would be fine.
“She donated to everybody, who are we kidding? Just pick one, she’ll be good with it. She just wants you to actively do something,” she said.
A celebration of life for Bard is being planned by her family, though the date is not set yet.
“Though Sue may no longer be with us, her spirit lives on in the gardens she nurtured, the trails she rode, and the countless lives she touched through her selfless acts of service,” Langlois said. “To all of us who knew her, let's honour her memory by carrying forward her values—by embracing kindness, nurturing our own passions, and seeking adventure in our own lives.”
GCAT is planning a ghost ride in Bard's honour for Sept. 28 around 1 p.m. The ride will begin at city hall (possibly with remarks from Matteliano), after which participants will ride to the site of the collision and place a white painted bike against a post.
