Friday, October 30, 2026

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Malden

Susan Fusco, Melrose High Class of 1978, UMass Amherst Psychology Graduate and 26-Year Aetna Quality Analyst

Melrose High 1978, Springfield Tech and UMass Amherst, 26 years at Aetna, Avon on the side, the Ludlow High booster club, beaches in three states, a garden and a son she raised into, in her words, an amazing young man. Susan Fusco has died.

Susan Fusco
Photo courtesy of Gately Funeral Home

Susan D. Fusco, a Melrose native, has died. Arrangements are by the Gately Funeral Home, Melrose.

She graduated from Melrose High School in 1978, went on to Springfield Technical Community College and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She spent 26 years at Aetna Healthcare as a quality analyst and sold Avon on the side. She attended St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Ludlow and was a longtime member of the Ludlow High School Booster Club. She loved beach days in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, her garden, the Nutcracker at Christmas with the younger generation and a new jacket, new shoes or a new lipstick shown off to family. Her family remembers her strength, her honesty and her gift for helping people find their own answers. Of everything she did, raising her son, Patrick, was the pride of her life.

She leaves her mother, Pamela Fusco; her son, Patrick Mahoney, and his wife Sarah; her siblings, Patricia, Ellen, Vinnie and Danny; her nieces and nephews, Fredrick, Vincent, Matthew, Isabella, Daniel, Serina, Warren and Erin; and a second generation, Freddie, Olivia and Brian. Her father, Vincent Fusco, her partner, Rick Mahoney, and her niece and nephew Shana Fusco and Brian Mahoney II died before her.

Visiting hours are Friday, October 16 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Gately Funeral Home, 79 West Foster Street, Melrose. A Mass of Christian Burial is Saturday, October 17 at 10 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Church, 770 Salem Street, Malden, with burial at Wyoming Cemetery, Melrose.

Compiled from information published by Gately Funeral Home. Photograph courtesy of the family via Gately Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.