Paying It Forward, One Life at a Time
When Susan Magidson describes her life today, she talks about animals, community, and the quiet satisfaction of helping others. Yet the story begins long before she became the founder of a national pig placement and rescue network, long before the full-time staff and the 7-day-a-week operation, and long before she served as a guarantor for a woman she had never met.
It begins with a moment of fear (and of generosity) from her early years as a single mother.
“I was struggling with one child and [being] on my own,” Susan said. “One month, I couldn’t make my rent. I was very worried about it.” She remembers sharing her distress with a friend, who simply opened her checkbook and wrote the full amount, refusing repayment. “She said, ‘This is yours. Just be sure you pay it forward.’ And I have been paying lots of people forward—lots and lots of people,” Susan shared.
‘This is yours. Just be sure you pay it forward.’
That experience stayed with Susan. It shaped her instincts, her sense of responsibility, and her compassion for anyone pushed to the edge.
Her work with potbellied pigs, at its heart, is also work with people—educating, guiding, supporting, and sometimes helping them say goodbye when a pig nears the end of life. “All the services they needed, I tried to provide,” Susan said.
Many years later, when Susan was told about a woman in greater Philadelphia who fled domestic violence with her 3-year-old son and was facing eviction, she didn’t hesitate. Susan decided to become an angel guarantor—someone who serves as a guarantor for a borrower despite not knowing them.
The borrower had lost her child-care credit after relocating to a nearby county, leaving her without work and three months behind on rent. By the time HFL connected with her, she was working three jobs in healthcare and had her son back in childcare, but the back rent remained out of reach. With no family member who could qualify as a guarantor, she was moments away from losing their home.
“As long as I can do it…I would do it again.”
Susan didn’t need to know the woman personally to understand the stakes.
“What stood out was her situation: a mother trying to keep her child safe and stay housed,” she said. “I related to her story right away. I started my life as a single mother, struggling with one child and on my own…I’m in a position where I can help,” Susan explained.
Guarantors serve an important, often less understood role in the free loan cycle. They are a required part of the application process for both personal and business loans. Life is not always kind, and sometimes borrowers don’t have someone in their life to serve as a guarantor; it’s moments like these when an angel guarantor is invaluable.
This blend of care, patience, and responsibility runs through everything Susan does, and serving as a guarantor was another expression of her core values. Susan saw someone in need and remembered the feeling of being helped when she—herself—needed it most.
When asked whether she would guarantee another loan, she didn’t hesitate: “As long as I can do it…I would do it again.”