This is my tribute to my Gram, Rosa Mae Freeman. I hope I have made her proud and she enjoyed
having me as her granddaughter. She was one of the greatest joys in my life and I am so very proud
to have the privilege to call her "Gram".
I wrote this letter about my Gram on February 6, 2002, the day before her 95th birthday.
I somehow knew that this would be the last of her birthdays and I wanted it to be so very special
for her.
I will never forget that wonderful day, her 95th birthday, and the time I was allowed to share
with her.
She is in my heart and will always remain there; my beautiful, steadfast, strong, caring, wonderful
Gram.
Rosa Mae Freeman
02/07/07 to 01/31/03
Sometimes when people get old, they are "forgotten" or ignored. Sometimes when people look
at them all they see is an "old person" who can no longer live and function in a normal
life, they become an "inconvenience". . I am not one of those people. I want to yell out
to the world, "This person has lived a unique and wonderful life too. There is a person
inside that was once a child, a daughter, a young woman, a wife, a mother…so much more
than meets the eye." Older people still love and need, laugh and cry…someday we will all
be old, let's hope we are not viewed as "an old person" or an "inconvenience". So, as I
set out to write about my gram, Rosa, I hope that I am able to convey all the things in
and about her life that make her a special person, her likes, dislikes, favorites, and
all those qualities that make each one of us a unique and special person.
This is for my gram, Rosa, a one of a kind. I love you gram. Serena
Rosa Mae Freeman was born on a farm in Clearwater, Sedgwick County, KS. On February 7,
1907. She was the fourth child and first girl born to Joseph Wilton Roy Freeman and Mary
Catherine Nolte. She grew up on the farm in Clearwater during the time of the First World
War there were no household conveniences like electricity, running water, indoor bathrooms. Life was hard for her and her family. When I was young, I was fascinated with the stories she told me of her life when she was growing up. I once told her I wished I had grown up when she did and saw all that she did. It was one of the few times gram ever got really upset with me and something I had said! She then told me that under no circumstances did I want to live then. She explained to me that it was a very hard life and the life and time I lived in is what she wanted for me, that I might have opportunity and convenience in my life. I didn't understand at the time what she was telling me, but over the course of time I did.
You see, for gram life was all about family. That was and has always been her joy. She has
always focused on her family and others, never herself. She would give you the shirt off
her back if that was all she had and you needed it. When she was a young mother and wife,
she had one dress to wear. My mother Betty Ruth said at the end of each day she would she
would wash her dress, and then go to bed waiting for it to dry so she could wear it the
next day. Her saying was "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". She never complained about
that life, and only saw the joy in her children, husband and family. She loved to spend time with family. Howard Freeman recently told me he loved the trips his family (Hoy Freeman's) would make to Rosa and Theodore's farm. He remembered gram would make them all homemade vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream has always been her favorite; she would prefer that over anything else or any other food.
When her children grew up and had children of their own, her grandchildren were one of her
great joys in life. I was the youngest child of Betty Ruth and was so fortunate to spend
time with Rosa and get to know her not only as "gram" but as the person she is. When I was
little, gram would visit us in Kansas from Oklahoma.
She lived in El Reno until 1980 when
she moved back to Wichita, Kansas to be close to her family. During her stay in El Reno,
she took care of her Aunt Olive Mae Freeman Devault in her older years until her death in
1972. In 1974 when I was 8 years old, my mother took me to El Reno to spend a week with
gram, just the two of us. I will remember that time always. You see, gram spent quality
time with me whenever I visited. We didn't watch T.V. or listen to music. We talked,
shared, and enjoyed our time together. She would take me to a hamburger place in El Reno
that made the best burgers with grilled onions! And we would walk downtown, window
shopping. At night, we played dominoes and had hot chocolate, two of her favorites, and
now mine. She made me chairs for my Barbie dollhouse out of coffee cans. She was so gifted
in the crafts. She showed me how to sew, and also crochet Afghans. She would make
beautiful Afghans. She would use scrap yarn, and to look at the colors you would think,
that looks awful together, but when she had the afghan done, somehow it was beautiful and
just perfect. She used all colors in her Afghans, she loved all colors, and they were all
her favorites. That week I spent with gram had such an impact on my life, and my love for
my gram.
In 1980 when I was fourteen, Rosa moved back to Wichita, Kansas. I spent every single
weekend with gram from then on. I loved staying with her. She worked at McDonalds making
fries across the street from her home for a short time. She didn't work because she had
to, she worked because she enjoyed it and enjoyed being around people. Then one day, she
was hit by a van when she was crossing the street. I was never more scared in my whole
life than at that time. She recovered, but her legs were never the same after that. She
had a hard time getting around after the accident and couldn't work anymore. That didn't
stop her. We still spent the weekends together, and she still would walk down to the
David's store and the sub shop with me so we could window shop and have lunch on
Saturday's.
Rosa moved into a house directly across from my high school the year I started.
She wouldn't hear of me eating lunch at the school. So every day I would walk to gram's
at lunchtime and she would have a hot lunch ready for me. She would make me my favorite
for desert, her homemade cinnamon rolls. After school I would walk to gram's and spend
the afternoon after school with her. She loved to hear me practice my violin. No matter
how bad I might have been on a piece of music to start with, she encouraged me.
She shared of herself always. Now that I am grown and with a family of my own, I take my
children to see their great gram. She still loves to see my little ones and visit with
them. Even though they will never know gram as I do, they know her love, just as I do.
That is the single constant thing that gram has always given, her love unconditionally.
That is the person gram has always been a loving, giving, sharing, and caring person.
There are so many things about Rosa I can't possibly express here. The most important
things in her life were family, faith and God. Now that I have shared with you the
importance of her family, I would like to share with you also the importance faith has
in her life.
Gram loved religious music and her bible. She loved to write songs of Jesus and poems of
Heaven. This is a poem she has written that was published in 1978 in New Voices in
American Poetry.
I Will See Jesus
When Jesus looks down on me from above,
I'll be working for Him, and giving my love
I will help the needy and ill in some small way
I 'all remember to thank Him for helping me this way
This world is full of sorrows and woes
I'll be content to help lighten the load
He will give me strength to carry my share
I'll praise Him for it, and let Him know I care
I'll see my Jesus in all that comes to pass
In the beautiful skies, and new morning grass
The cool streams of water, and mountains so high
He gives us so much, until the day we die
At night when sleep won't come to me
I talk to Jesus and He comforts me
I will live each day the best I know how
Then I'll have no regrets in that last hour
For all things I'm grateful to Him above
He never expects too much for His love
When the sun is setting and life's ebbing away
I will see my Jesus and go home with Him to stay
Written in tribute to Rosa Mae Freeman on February 6, 2002 by her granddaughter, Serena Farmer Steventon.
