Caroline S. Rose
Caroline S. Rose (nee Friedman) died peacefully in her sleep Thursday, April 30, 2015, surrounded by her loving family following a long illness.
Caroline was born in Seattle, Washington in January of 1932 to immigrant parents Jacob (Lithuania) and Sarah (Russia) Friedman. She joined older brothers, Bob and Stan, as the youngest member of their family. They lived in a modest home in the lively, close-knit, Jewish neighborhood of the Central Area of Seattle. With the success of her father's downtown haberdashery, the family later moved to the Mt. Baker district where Caroline graduated from Franklin High School. During those years, being with family, singing at school and at temple, and joining numerous social events with friends were the center of Caroline's young life.
Shortly after high school, Caroline met and married the love of her life, Mark "Billy" Rose of the colorful, large, and well known Rose family. The Rose parents were immigrants from Turkey - the Island of Marmara. Mark and Caroline were married in January of 1952, honeymooned in San Francisco, and began their marriage living on Capitol Hill. In addition to spending loads of time with beloved family, the couple also enjoyed a wide circle of friends that lasted their entire lives. Dave and Virginia Calvo, Mordie and Marian Eskenazi, Sam and Jean Angel, Jack and Stella Eskenazi, and Jack and Franny Muscatel were a few of their very long-time, precious friendships. All shared cherished memories of their good times in "the old neighborhood."
Caroline and Mark went on to have three children, Deborah, Mark and Cynthia. Their young family thrived on Mercer Island while Caroline focused on creating a warm and inviting home. With her tremendous sense of humor, warm style, and playfulness, everyone who knew Caroline thought she was charming and fun. Caroline's many nieces and nephews on both sides of her family considered her to be their "favorite Aunt" throughout her life. Caroline was well known for her great love of the ocean, babies, chocolate, Paul Newman, singing, and for the fact that she was apt to spontaneously tap dance at unexpected moments - with nary a lesson!
After her children were grown, and after a later-life career working in banking, Caroline volunteered holding and caring for premature newborns at Swedish Hospital to give young parents needed breaks. In her late sixties, Caroline walked sixty miles in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Event from Enumclaw to Seattle, even being a great sport about spending two nights tenting outside. This was after carefully avoiding the experience of camping for all of her life. Her family was extremely proud of her. She walked not only in support of herself, having had kidney cancer, but also in solidarity for all who face the great difficulty of cancer.
Perhaps the greatest joy of Caroline's later life was being "Grandma" or "Nini" to her two grandsons, Peter and Drew. For the last part of her life, and after husband Mark's passing, she kept a beautiful apartment at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Cynthia and Bob Hedlund, where she happily provided countless hours of special Grandma time. Nothing was more natural or joyful to her than laughing and playing with her bright, loving, handsome grandsons.
Family, friends, children and grandchildren will all miss Caroline and remember her with great love.
Services held Sunday, May 3, at 10:30 a.m. at the Seattle
Sephardic Brotherhood Cemetery,
1230 North 167th Street.
Published in The Seattle Times from Apr. 30 to May 1, 2015
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