Mom who battled breast cancer honored by family at Phillies game

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A Lehigh Valley family honored their loved one, who battled breast cancer for more than two years, at the Phillies playoff game Saturday.

"Okay, we're going to write 'Go Phillies' on this one," Sarah Storace told her two-year-old daughter, Elaina, as they made signs together prepping for the game.

While the chance to go to the game was exciting, it was also difficult: they were going without the heart of their family, Sue.

"I can't even describe how much she loved her children," Rod Heckman said of his wife. A mother of three and grandmother of two, her family was her entire world.

She was so dedicated to her family, and so intent on being strong that for two years, Sue kept a battle she was fighting mostly private.

"Most would not have a clue that she had cancer and she wanted it that way," said Rod.

Cancer, as in breast cancer. It was a disease she refused to let define her.

"She cared more, honestly, about the Phillies than the fact that she had breast cancer," said Nicole Heckman, Sue's oldest daughter.

In 2023, Sue was among the fans cheering, and yes, booing, during the playoffs at Citizen's Bank Park.

It was an experience she told her husband she wanted to do again, so he secretly bought tickets for the NLDS.

"By all appearances seemed to be doing very well. Unfortunately, it reoccurred last July and with this round, she wasn't responding to the chemo," said Rod.

Sue passed away on Sept. 8. She didn't get to sit in the stands and watch her beloved Phillies in the playoffs as she had planned, but you can believe she was here in spirit.

"We're always going to miss our mom, but I know that she would want us to lean on each other and be there for each other and keep going," said Nicole.

Sue would have been disappointed in how the Phillies performed in these playoffs.

"She demanded perfection and she demanded to win no matter what she did," said Rod.

Still, she would have loved the run if it meant more time with her greatest loves.

"The word survivor is such a perfect word when you talk about cancer," said Rod. "And we all hope that the survivor is the patient that has cancer and they recover. Unfortunately in Sue's case, she wasn't the survivor, so the survivors are our children and me."