ROSA ROGERS

Rosa was born November 13, 1928 the second in a family of eight children, six of whom made it to adulthood. Her parents, Ernest and Lea Delisle had settled into a small house they had moved onto a piece of land that would later become Pascal, Saskatchewan.
Ernest Delisle was a restless man, moving from farming in summer to logging in the winter, to pig farming to providing transport trucks for the fisheries business, a gas station with vehicle repair service, a taxi business, running the town electrical plant --- if there was an opportunity available he jumped at it and parlayed it into something more. As his children grew they ran the various businesses.
In the early 1940’s the economy changed with the war years and grandpa had spread himself too thin. His older sons left Saskatchewan for work in Vancouver. It was then that Rosa’s aunt Annette, who lived in Vancouver, offered to send mom to hairdressing school if mom agreed to work in her aunt’s shop. Mom joined her brothers in Vancouver, received her hairdressing diploma and worked for her aunt Annette.
In 1948 Mom married Gerry Briere and in 1949 their first child was born. The following year Dad began work in the oil fields and the gypsy years began. Mom loved it. Always on the move to a new place, a new town, new friends. Two sons, Robert and David, were born in different towns in Alberta and the five of us travelled the length and width of that province and Northern B.C. in a 6 x 26 foot house trailer. David’s bed for at least a year was a dresser drawer.
By 1962 their marriage had broken up and we moved back to Vancouver where she could find work and raise the family on her own. Her father’s business smarts served her in good stead. A set-back was just a bump on the road and if you take them fast enough you can just fly over them! She rented, and then purchased a small house on Marine Drive which she sold to finance another on Keith Road which was sold to finance a duplex on 5th and Lonsdale the revenue of which financed a large waterfront lot on Shuswap Lake. For many years she spent her summers on the Shuswap living in one of her MANY bikinis and her winters were spent back in Vancouver. Our family has so many wonderful memories of visits to “the lake”.
Just before leaving northern B.C. mom had met the man who would become her life’s partner – John Rogers. I’m sure his nomadic lifestyle on pipelines and heavy duty construction attracted mom to him. Although he was frequently away, John was large in her life. He spent his downtime with her at the Shuswap. Eventually they sub-divided the lot, sold it and purchased another lot across the lake where they built their permanent home.
After John’s death my mom’s health began to decline and we had to bring her to Winnipeg. I believe the hardest thing for her about that move was that we had to sell her beloved lake property.
Mom loved to travel. She served as a travelling companion for her elderly uncle on several trips to Europe. She also spent a month to New Zealand Australia. She travelled with her daughter to Hong Kong and they extended that trip to Thailand. She enjoyed joining her baby sister in Yuma and took her family on a wonderful trip to Mexico.
It was terribly sad to watch dementia rob us of such a vibrant woman. But I believe mom took one final amazing trip just a few days before she passed away. We were sitting with her at the nursing home. She hadn’t spoken or responded to us in any way for well over a week but suddenly her face lit up with the most beautiful smile and she said VERY clearly “Yes, yes! Oh, it’s beautiful. Just beautiful.” She never spoke again. I believe the veil of eternity had been parted so she could see what awaited her, but she had to endure a few more days on this earth before she could return to her eternal home.
We would like to extend a heartfelt Thank You to the staff at Kildonan Personal Care Home for the wonderful support they gave to mom and our family during her stay there.