Rose Ricketts' Obituary
God’s Special Delivery
While the world was being enchanted by the first performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Charles Ernest Otte and Clara Horton Clark were busy premiering their own rhapsody in pink: their daughter Rose Clara Otte. Born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 11, 1924, Rose was immediately embraced with the love of her family and the love of God.
Rose spent her formative years in Connecticut, growing up alongside her siblings Henry, Lil, Vi, Dave and Frances. The close-knit family weathered the economic challenges of the Depression years, experiencing the importance of faith, hope and generosity. She developed an early and enduring love of fish and seafood, always remembering the adventures of her brothers going to the coast to fish for each day’s dinner.
The World was her Oyster
After completing high school, her life and horizons expanded dramatically through her courtship and marriage to Chester Ricketts. Chester was an Army man, and Rose was more than willing to follow her heart and her husband through his stationed assignments from Maryland to Alaska to Washington state. They experienced profound sadness when they lost their first child, their two-month old daughter, Rose Ann and were told by her doctors that Rose would not be capable of having another child.
Rose’s strong heart , her love of children, and faith in God proved the medics wrong: their determination to build a family produced a string of healthy daughters and – to Chester’s surprise and delight – a son. Nancy, Deana, Mary, Martha and Ed were each born in a different Army base location before the family settled permanently in Washington state.
A Model Wife and Homemaker
Rose was devoted to her family. She created a joyful home where voices were never raised in anger and the Golden Rule ruled. Rain or shine, each day she would walk her children to school and be there to walk them home. Some days, she would serve as Class Monitor for the teachers. She excelled at managing every aspect of the home; when Chester arrived home from work every evening, the table was set, dinner was ready and the family sat down to enjoy dinner together.
Food was always plentiful and delicious at Rose’s table. Each meal was a feast, and every holiday was an extravaganza. Everything was homemade and geared to please different tastes: to this day, fond memories abound of the apple butters, apple sauces and other homemade preserves. Pies were a special favorite; from mince meat to every type of fruit dessert. Grandson Matt chose to carry on the tradition of making peanut butter fudge and comes through every time with Rose’s personal recipe on special occasions.
Indeed, at Rose and Chester’s home, all were welcomed, embraced and fed. Lines were never drawn between in-laws, neighbors, friends and family. No one ever left hungry. At the same time, bounty and generosity did not give way to waste. Rose instilled in her children the importance of frugality and appreciation for God’s gifts, values ingrained in Rose during more challenging times. Children who did not ‘’Clean Their Plate’’ could expect to see the refused food on their breakfast dish the next day.
Living for the Children and the Lord
Especially when her grandchildren entered the family portrait, Rose could not have been more proud of her offspring. Her eyes would light up when her ‘grandbabies’ entered the room. She relished every moment she spent with her eleven grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren and two great-greats. Some lived close by, like Jazmyn who helped her trim the Christmas tree in recent years. Others, like Martha’s children who lived on a farm in Wisconsin and were amazed by city living with its electric lights and water faucets, were particularly cherished on their visits.
Yet Rose’s legacy lives on as much in her own progeny as in the thousands of children she influenced in her fifty-six years as a Sunday School teacher. She was a fixture at the Lake City Community Church for sixty years, a devout servant of the Lord and ‘’Grandma’’ to four generations of children. Rose needed to hug children as much as they needed her hugs.
Chester and Rose were active members of the Masons and participated in their community and charitable events. All year long, Rose would work on fashioning and filling hundreds of Christmas stockings. Then, once per year, the couple would travel to Portland to deliver them to the Shriners’ Children Hospital.
Balancing Adversity with Delight
Rose was a short, cheerful woman with a soft voice and a love affair with polyester, especially floral polyester dresses. She was not one to raise her voice and did not particularly like to repeat herself; the children learned to listen carefully to her gentle words and profound advice. She had a knack for listening in confidence, without judgement or gossip, and for perking up a bad attitude.
She did not believe in coincidence; she believed in God’s intent. When she underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour, she guided another patient through a traumatic experience. Rose put aside the severity of her own situation and believed that God had placed her in that hospital to help that young lady.
Travelling with her family was one of Rose’s many delights. Whether with Chester or in the company of one or more of her children or siblings, she valued time spent on fishing trips and on a cruise through the Panama Canal. She went on the Victoria Clipper to watch the orca whales, visited Mount Rainier and crossed the country for a particularly poignant return visit to Maine, Massachusetts and her home town of Hartford.
Rose’s personal rhapsody, however, had to be the excitement she held for playing the penny slots in Reno and Vegas. She was always lucky, whether spinning small jackpots at the slots or taking home larger prizes in raffles. Special events like graduations would be celebrated with a trip to Vegas or to Disneyland, where she claimed Goofy as her boyfriend after he hitched a ride on her scooter.
There was not much ‘spare’ time in Rose’s busy days, but when she relaxed, it was with a cup of coffee and sometimes a peanut butter latte. She liked to challenge herself with word search puzzles and she especially loved to sing. Everyone loved to hear to sing her favorites ‘’Amazing Grace’’ and ‘’The Little Brown Church in the Valley.” Rose was an appreciated member of the Church Choir.
Trusting Jesus
The early nineties brought heartache again in the form of Chester’s declining health. Rose cared for him lovingly as he suffered through a series of heart attacks and succumbed to bone cancer in 1995. Her faith in the Lord and her loving family saw her through this most difficult time.
Rose soldiered on, appreciating life’s small pleasures. She learned to drive Chester’s pick-up truck, and then racked up adventures driving her little red Taurus. She was teased for an unplanned pick-up of a hitchhiker and for her ‘’fender benders’’ – even nicking the bumper of a classic collectible car owned by her granddaughter’s teacher.
She always loved trips to the Skippers restaurant where she feasted on her standard-order fish and seafood. When her mental and physical health started to decline and she relied on her nursing home support, she lived for her pancakes and coffee and for the constant company of her children and grandchildren.
Throughout her life, Rose served the Lord with all her heart. There was no mistaking her love for her Savior. She often said that she did not want for anything on earth, and she would be amply rewarded through the treasures of heaven. Rose passed away on December 16, 2012, two days after the heinous shooting of children at school in Newtown, Connecticut near her home of Hartford. A friend concluded on Facebook that God summoned Rose on that day because he needed a very special Sunday School teacher in heaven, to hug those little ones.
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