Rosalind

It’s snowing today. Its four o’clock and I am still in my bathrobe, I have no plans to get dressed. All I want is a warm cup of tea, a pencil, and paper and to sit where the heater can warm me.

My Dad and my Son are out walking in the snow together. My Son wanted me to walk with them but I didn’t feel up to facing the cold. For exercise I leaned out the window and took a picture of the snow; I think that is enough cold for today.

My friend Carol Anne just called her mother Rosalind died last week. Carol Anne and her family have been my friends forever, friends of my parents and grandfather before that.
I met Carol Ann and her parents during a flood. Because of heavy logging in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the Eel River in Northern California would overflow its banks during heavy rains. I was born during a rainstorm and the night I came home from the hospital after I was born, our house was full of water. Jack (Carol Ann’s father) showed up just a few moments after my Grandfather, my mother and I arrived and packed all of our things into his car and took us up to his house, which was above the flood water line. We stayed their safe and warm while the water raged in the river below. After the floodwaters receded, they came over and cleaned the mud out of our home. While I was there Carol Ann, her family and I began our long friendship… Rosalind had a special gift of being an encourager and support to everyone in my family. Rosalind opened her home to us time after time. I always felt safe and welcome there. Even though I haven’t seen them for a long time every time they come to my mind, I have warm memories and they are part of my family.