10-4-1985
It was a quiet, somber group that gathered to see them off. Little was said. There was no carefree banter. Neither was there much visible display of emotion. Mom alone let the tears flow. What were her thoughts? Who can know. She was losing a daughter to the world. Were they tears of joy or sorrow or something in between? The two younger brothers kept their thoughts to themselves and the little sister showed no emotion. Dad probably said it best when he said that this was the best way to meet the future. He, with only a grade school education plus Normal School, was a believer in higher education. So what was decided really solved two problems. It was August 1934. Wallace had spent the past year at the Turkey Track Ranch in eastern Colorado. He was alone and needed a housekeeper. Rosa needed a high school education. So the answer was very simple and it worked out very well. She would go back to Colorado with him and keep house and would attend high school there for the next three years. I feel sure that she and Wallace enjoyed those three brief years. Of course, time waits for no one and all things must pass on. Wallace left the ranch in '38 and Rosa went to live her own life, and that life I suspect was not an easy one. She soon married James A. Gibbs. To be perfectly honest, he liked the bottle too well for his own good. He worked at various construction sites and finally ended up in the hills of Tennessee near Manchester. This, I believe was near the place where he was born and raised. I never met him until after the war. I was on leave and came through Tennessee. I believe they had three children then. Betty, the eldest, was not yet in school. The shack they lived in was similar to what the boys have described as some of the housing conditions of the poor people in the deep south. Jim finally must have straightened out. They moved to Rochester, Michigan where he worked into the landscaping business. He drove trucks on construction sites before that. He apparently became quite successful but she did not live to share in that affluence. The words of the poet seem quite appropriate at this point.
Of all the sad words of tongue and pen the saddest are these, it might have been.
I have many pleasant memories of the times we played together when we were children. May she rest in peace.