From the Strawberry Patch...: Rosa

I’ve known Rosa as long as I have lived in North Carolina, over 31 years. She was one of the first ladies I met, as a young bride, when I joined our church; she invited me into her Circle group. Rosa could do just about anything… chair caning, rug hooking, all forms of needle art, tin punching, rubber stamping, painting, you name it; Rosa did it. As her name implied, Rosa loved flowers; and she was the consummate hostess. Our Circle loved to go to Rosa’s, we were treated to all of her special attention and admired everything that Rosa loved and created; she always fed us the most delicious desserts and generously shared her recipes. We never left her home without some sort of favor, lovingly created by her own hands.

She told us that she’d live through the summer; she’d stay until the flowers stopped blooming. When I spoke with her this spring and summer and would ask her “how are you” she’d happily reply “I’m still here!” She had flowers at all her windows, inside and out, and sat on the sofa in the afternoons where she could see them best; until it became just too hard. The walk from her bed to that sofa became too much, she knew her time was running out. She told her home good-bye; she walked, now with great difficulty, one last time through the door where she had welcomed so many, so graciously, for all those years. She went to the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home where a soft and restful bed was waiting, her room filled with flowers just for her. Rosa died on Tuesday at 8 AM; I don’t think it’s a coincidence that was the morning of the first frost of the season. Rosa told us she’d stay as long as the flowers were blooming,
and she did; she was always true to her word.