Rose
- a memory or two


I met Rose sometime in 2015, so compared to many of you I had the pleasure of sharing my life with her for only a relatively short time, but what a precious time that was.

Getting to know Rose and becoming part of what we jokingly started calling 'team Rose' was such a privilege. We all tried to make Rose's life as comfortable and stress-free as we could, and I hope we managed to make her last few years happier and more comfortable by providing companionship and help dealing with whatever needed to be dealt with.

Companionship was very important to Rose. As I'm sure all of you know she absolutely loved having visitors, chatting to them and reminiscing about the past. Her face always lit up when she was reminded about one of her friends or relatives visiting, particularly if it was someone living further away, who could only visit every now and again.

She would always ask if we had anything to give them to eat, particularly some sweet treats. She used to tell me what she used to bake and what people liked, with bread pudding and scones (recipe courtesy of Joan from Manchester) being mentioned most often. She shared the recipes with me, and I would try to bake those and other cakes and biscuits and some savoury treats whenever possible, with Rose 'supervising'.

She loved the house smelling of baking (as do I) and always had to see whatever came out of the oven to give it the seal of approval. She could then relax and await the arrival of visitors knowing that they would not go hungry whilst in her house, and whenever possible they would have something to take home with them as well, like home made jam or pickles, which we enjoyed making together a few times. Jams were always a great addition to pancakes which Rose loved and we used to make quite often.

I shall certainly miss her very much, but I will think of her when baking, wondering if she would approve of it when it comes out of the oven.