Goodbye, Rose
This has been a week of great personal loss. A wonderfully dear former colleague and an aunt with whom, in my youth, I was extremely close.
My mother's sister Rose had been ill since a childhood bout of rheumatic fever. She was in her early teens at the time and was sickly thereafter. Yet while Rose dealt with heart issues for the rest of her life, she was strong-willed and as tough as nails. Saddled with emotional scars stemming from her medical issues, she was not always what you'd classify as "happy," yet in her last few years she was. Or as close as she could be.
At 70, four years after the sudden death of her husband, she reinvented her life hundreds of miles from what had been home for fourty years. In Pennslyvania Rose found new friends, new activities and an independent life. Not that life with John was bad, they loved each other, but they lived a life of routine and quiet existence.
My aunt deteriorated over the past few months due to issues related to progressive heart failure. In the end, we were prepared for Rose's loss as best we could be, but a nagging emptiness surrounds us now. I feel a great deal of loss for my mother and her niece, Susan, who have been caring directly for Rose. Rose's passing left a void that will be hard to fill. Rose had given my mother a renewed sense of family and purpose that makes the loss especially troubling for her.
Rose suffered in her last couple of weeks and we know that her passing was a blessing, but our hearts ache nonetheless. Rose and I had grown apart sometime in my late teens, but our bond never truly broke. I will miss her.
Tags: Rose Mee