Suzette Margaret Booth was born in northern New South Wales, attended Mullumbimby High School, and entered Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1968. She married Reuben Rose, a veterinary surgeon, in her final year. Suzette and Reuben had three children: Amy, Reuben and Sam. Her husband subsequently became Dean of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney.

Suzette did her intern year at Timaru in New Zealand and then commenced paediatric training at the Children's Hospital at Camperdown in 1975. As part of her advanced training in paediatrics she spent a year as Fellow in the Child Development Unit, working with Kim Oates. Here she showed the aptitude and empathy for helping abused, disadvantaged and developmentally delayed children which she displayed so competently in her later work.

After gaining the FRACP Suzette worked as a Research Fellow at King George V Hospital with Dr Edith Collins from 1981 to 1984, looking at the problems of infants with congenital abnormalities, foetal alcohol syndrome, and those with neonatal drug withdrawal secondary to maternal drug abuse. She worked part time for several years while she raised her 3 children. Although she had initially planned to work as a paediatrician in rural New South Wales, her own career opportunities and those of her husband meant that, apart from a year in private specialist practice in Cooma in 1984 to 1985, her work was centred on Sydney. She set up a specialist paediatric practice in Glebe in 1985, working there part-time so as to devote more time to her children, until she was appointed as Staff Specialist to the Camperdown Children's Hospital (Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children) in 1987.

Her interest in abused and neglected children continued, and she was appointed Head of the Child Protection Unit at that hospital in 1991, a position she held until 1997 when she left to set up a specialist paediatric practice in the inner western suburbs of Sydney. Here the emphasis was once again on helping children with emotional, behavioural and developmental problems. Suzette died unexpectedly in 2003.

The bald facts about Suzette’s life don't convey the enthusiasm and sparkle for which he was renowned. She was eminently sensible and practical, a great asset for those who deal with the abused, neglected and developmentally delayed. Her strong Christian faith was manifest in her caring and practical approach to the most disadvantaged of families. She was one of the first doctors in Australia to make a full-time commitment to working in child protection and was an active member of Doctors for the Prevention of Abuse of Children (DPAC), and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN).