Dorothy
J. “Dottie” Rose, 88, of Topsfield died Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at
the Masconomet Healthcare Center after a stay of just over a month.
Born in
Sherman Mills, ME, on the eve of the Great Depression, she was one
of five children of the Fred D. and Ethel A. (Rush) Lewis and later
raised six children of her own. After graduating from Sherman High
School and Regis College, Dottie married Ralph M. Rose of Garfield,
NJ, after meeting him on a blind date in Massachusetts. They moved
to Saddle Brook, NJ, and she took a job as a high school English
teacher in Garfield. She wasn’t all that fond of their first
acquisition, a monkey named JoJo, who liked to bite women. As their
family grew, they moved to Wyckoff, NJ —minus the monkey.
As a
longtime member of St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Wyckoff, she
was a member of the Parish Council and a founding member of the
church’s prayer group. In recent years, she was a member of the St.
Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Topsfield. Wherever she lived, she
attended Mass every day she was able. When she couldn’t make it, her
“dear friends” stepped in, bringing communion to her.
Dottie
was a hard worker, starting at a young age picking potatoes with her
sister Ella, recalling those times with laughter and joy, if not the
wages – 35 cents a barrel. At various times, she took jobs such as
teaching French at St. Elizabeth’s and keeping books at the local
Wyckoff News, even as she raised her children. She also worked at
Sharp Electronics in New Jersey for ten years before retiring at age
seventy and moving to Massachusetts. Each time she took a job, she
made new friends.
Family and prayer were always at the center of Dottie’s life.
When
times were tough, Dottie kept going. Rarely spending money on
herself, she sometimes negotiated with doctors and others when it
was hard to pay the bills as she raised her family. After the tragic
deaths of two of her sons, she kept going, encouraging family and
friends to pray for them, and for the living. “Thy will be done,”
she often said.
She was
full of life, playing basketball in high school, St. Regis College
and later was an avid fan of Georgetown University’s basketball team
-- and any team her grandchildren played on. She once took the
challenge of racing her oldest son Ed, in the back yard in Wyckoff,
and laughed when he beat her by a whisker. Later, she enjoyed taking
family and friends on yearly vacations with her timeshare, and when
she could no longer do that, she cherished their visits to her
Topsfield apartment.
Members
of Dottie’s family remember her as a loving sister, mother,
mother-in-law, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother, putting
others before herself. She was the one they turned to for strength
and inspiration, always encouraging them to pray over life’s
challenges.
She is
survived by three sons, Edward B. Rose and his partner Chris Snow of
RI, Robert L. Rose and his wife Kimberly of PA, and Joseph A. Rose
and his wife Ellen of Ipswich; a daughter, Marie McArdle and her
husband Jamie of Topsfield; fourteen grandchildren, Rebecca, Emily,
Richard, William and Sandra Rose, Erica, Sarah and Laura McArdle,
Jessica, Andrew, Michael, Allyson, Susan and Kate Rose; five great
grandchildren, a sister, Ella Bates of Delaware, and many loving
nieces and nephews. She was the mother of the late Richard B. Rose
formerly of NJ and John L. Rose formerly of ME; grandmother of the
late Stephanie Rose formerly of Ipswich and sister of the late
William Lewis, Margaret Davis and Althea Sullivan.
Her
funeral will be held 9 am Friday, February 3 from the
Whittier-Porter Funeral Home, 6 High Street, Ipswich followed by the
celebration of a Funeral Mass of Christian Burial at 10 am St. Rose
of Lima Church, 12 Park St., Topsfield. Family and friends are
respectfully welcomed. Visiting hours are Thursday 5 to 8 pm. Her
Interment service will be held 11 am Saturday in the Cedar Lawn
Cemetery, Paterson, NJ. The family requests that in lieu of flowers,
donations in her name may be made to Cure SMA, 925 Busse Rd., Elk
Grove, IL, 60007.
