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This Tribute was provided by Jacinta Davila
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"Rosa Maria Gomez (nee Rimira), 77 years of age, died on January 14, 1998, at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, after a brief illness. She is survived by Alonso Tomas, her loving husband of 54 years, a daughter, Jacinta Adela Gomez Davila, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren."
That was in the newspaper a week ago. Other than the mention of her business and the date and time of the memorial service and place of interment, this brief announcement was the public acknowledgement that my mother had existed. But to my father, Rosa was much more than a wife, to my children -- a wise and sometimes mischievous grandmother, and to my grandson and granddaughter , a loving great-grandmother. There is so much more to know about this person than just those few lines above.
My mother, mi mas estimada mamacita, was born on December 10, 1920, to Benito Francisco and Irma Consuela Rimira, in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from high school in 1941, the first person in her family to do so and remembered her parents' pride in her accomplishment. She found part-time work as a stenographer for Estrella Blanca, an import-export company and she hated it. Though, she disliked being indoors and found the work tedious, she enjoyed the company of her co-workers. My grandfather told me my mother was 'Senorita Personalidad' and made many friends, some of whom she'd kept in touch with these many years.
When her father retired from his job as a bus driver for the LA Transit Authority in 1943, he decided to move the family to Phoenix, Arizona. Rosa was sorry to leave her friends, but thrilled to quit her job. (My mother did get something out of that position - years later, I would catch her taking down phone messages in shorthand!)
In Phoenix, Rosa worked in a local garden shop. This she loved. Rosa met the man she would eventually marry when she delivered a flower arrangement to his mother's home. Within 6 months Alonso Gomez and Rosa were married and she always said it was very good luck since she hadn't been scheduled for deliveries that day! They rented a tiny hacienda and set up house-keeping. I was born on July, 11, 1946.
Not long after my birth, my father suffered disabling injuries from a fall at the construction site where he was working as an electrician and the family moved in with my grandparents while he recovered.
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Rosa loved the earth and gardening and spent every spare moment of the next four years transforming her parents' small property into a magnificent oasis. It wasn't long after the gardens were featured in a newspaper article that she began receiving calls asking for advice. Her garden design business was very successful, but soon she was selling plants from her own gardens and knew she needed to expand. Rosa's mother, my grandmother, had died a few months earlier and building a greenhouse on the back of the house was just the thing to keep my grandfather busy. Within a few months, Rosa's dream, El Jardin, came to be.
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From 1952 to the day she died, Rosa was in her greenhouse every day. From the usual cactus and other plants indiginous to this desert region to lush orchids, everything thrived under her loving hands. People would bring her the sickliest looking stems and, within a few weeks, Rosa would present them back to their owners looking not only healthy, but much-loved. Her thumb was truly 'green'. |
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My father never fully recovered enough to work in the construction business again. He puttered and fixed things around the house, but he wasn't very happy not having something useful to do. Then he 'discovered' the greenhouse and, to my mother's dismay, was constantly underfoot! All right, my mother told him, you want to be in the greenhouse, then you will learn what to do. Thinking he would refuse, she was very much surprised and secretly pleased when he told her he would do anything to be with "mi querida esposa!" (What a charmer he was!) Dad was a quick learner and not only helped out in the greenhouse, but he eventually took over the business end of El Jardin. It was a terrific partnership.
I met Miguel Davila at my high school prom in 1963 when I was a junior. It was love at first sight and we married as soon as we graduated. I worked to put Miguel through college as -- you guessed it -- a stenographer for a medical clinic. (I hated it, too!) Miguel went to the University of Arizona and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. He went to work for the Hilton Hotel Corporation where he is now Director of Events for the Phoenix Airport Hilton.
Rosa's first grandchild, Consuela Luisa (Connie), was born on August 2, 1969. I no longer worked for the clinic and was able to assist Mother with her business. I loved it and, as Connie got older, she loved helping her abuela take care of all the wonderful 'growy things'.
Another grandchild for my parents, our first son -- Francisco Tomas (Tommy), was born on September 15, 1973, and, on February 9, 1976, we presented them with a second granddaughter, Beatriz Maria. |
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My grandfather had always dreamed of returning to Mexico for a visit before he died. Vacations were few during those start-up and later years. Mother and Dad were so busy that even a few days away from the greenhouse were too many. Even mi abuelo was busy helping my parents. Though Grandfather was in the best of health, he wasn't getting any younger and my parents, for his 80th birthday, took the him to Mexico City in 1979. Within a week of his return, my grandfather died peacefully in his sleep, his dream realized.
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By now, I was helping Mother full-time, but the work involved with a garden nursery and landscaping business was getting to be too much for just the family to run. We hired several employees to handle much of the everyday responsiblities, with Mother continuing to maintain the greenhouse. Now she had some time to herself.
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Mother took a few ceramic and potting classes at the local community college and found she loved the feel of clay as much as she loved the soil of her gardens. It all comes from the same place, she used to tell her grandchildren. Of course, the grand kids loved it when she would invite them to join her. Get dirty? On purpose? Si!!!!! |
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| Blue Ribbon at 1992 Art Festival |
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Several of her pieces have won awards at juried competetions in Phoenix and my mother supplied a few fine art shops in Scottsdale. She had put together a small catalog and, just a few months ago, was seriously considering a website on the Internet. We're still going to do it.
In 1989, my daughter, Connie, married Luis Elizondo and a year later gave birth to Antonio Jose, a great grandson for Mother and Dad and, in 1995, a great granddaughter, Maria Manuela, was born.
Mother and Dad eventually left a lot of El Jardin responsibilities to me and Connie and Mother was able to pursue many interests. She painted, she did needlework, and she read a great deal. .
"One Hundred Years of Solitude", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was another favorite that she claimed to have read many times. |
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About a year ago, a faulty toaster caused a house fire which destroyed part of my parents' home. Fortunately, the greenhouse was spared, but the loss of a good many family photographs was a devasting blow to all of us, especially my mother. I don't think she ever got over it. Their home was renovated and looks beautiful, but my mother claimed it was never the same house.
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I miss my mother and my children and grandchildren miss their abuela. It's so difficult for any of us to imagine a day without seeing her. Whether we'd find her bent over her potting wheel, or with her nose buried in a book, she would always stop and turn her attention to us. My mother found time to spend with all of us no matter how busy she was. Her friends could always count on her in time of trouble. And my dad was the light of her life. Not a day would go by that she didn't give thanks to God that she made the deliveries that certain day!
Mamacita, todas las valiosas memorias de nuestros dias juntos mantendre estimadas en mi corazon y, de vez en cuando las tomare una por una y recordare y sonreire. Yo te amo. |
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