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Our Dearest Friend Rose Edwards crossed the threshold this last Sunday, November 14th, around 5:00pm in the evening.
Rose was a long term and very dedicated anthroposophist. She served on the Rudolf Steiner Branch Council for many years and was president for eight years. She was also a holder of the First Class of the Free School of Spiritual Science. Rose's passing is indeed a very great loss for all Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society.
Although Rose requested that an organized three-day vigil not be asked of the community, a closed casket with her body was taken to the Christian Community last evening. You are welcome to sit and read or pray with Rose. The Christian Community is at 2135 W. Wilson.
Gordon has requested that there be no flowers.
Visitation:
The church will be open form 5:00 am Wednesday morning until 1:00 am
Thursday morning, and from 5:00 am Thursday morning until 8:00 am.
You are welcome to sit with Rose at any time during these hours.
The funeral service for Rose Edwards has been scheduled for this Thursday afternoon, November 18th at 3:45pm at the Christian Community Church at 2135 W. Wilson.
A Memorial Reception will take place after the service at the Germania Club
108 West Germania Place. You are cordially invited to share your memories
and stories of Rose. Light refreshments will be served.
This morning ws my last chance to attend the visitation for Rose. I was home from work today, so I was able to easily go.
I have known Rose since the year our family first participated in the Easter morning sunrise vigil at the shore of Lake Michigan.
Rose was for many years the heart of the Anthroposophical community in Chicago. She and her husband Gordon were among the hardy group of Anthroposophists who met by the lake in the darkest part of the night to wait for sunrise.
there is something about being out in the world at that moment in the daily cycle when human energy level and frequency is at lowest tide. It is the darkest part of the night. This is where we start out from when we wait for sunrise on Easter Sunday Morning.
We start in total darkness, When our psychic energy is this low, it can feel like despair. It is a phenomenon that occurs during this deepest darkness of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual world that makes me experience a moment of doubt and even panic regarding sunrise. Perhaps the sun will not rise. Perhaps my memory of daylight is not memory, but delusion.
Following this interval of doubt and panic, despair sets in. There is nothing now to do but wait and watch.
After a period of time...which always seems endless...we begin to be able to distinguish not just total unbroken darkness...but we think perhaps we see the outline of water meeting sand. Then we hear a bird.
And then little by little the world comes to life, and emerges from darkness...the waves get louder, the wind dets stronger, the birds swoop more and more energetically, the sky gets brighter and brighter in one spot until a single point of intensely golden light bursts into flame on the horizon, and rushes swiftly in a ray that shoots across the lake directly into our eyes.
The sun has risen, and it is Easter, we have been rescued from our momentary doubt and despair which had seemed infinite, and our beings are filled with light.
This experience was s gift from Rose to our family. I have a special memory of Maris and his brothers running all over the beach at sunrise hunting for goddess stones. That year they found a good many goddess stones, and they gave some of them to Rose. It was a perfect sunny morning, the lake glittered with countless specks of golden light as the sun bounded into the sky. We went to John Stolfo's studio on Loyola Ave. while Rose went to fetch breakfast, which was warm, rich, fragrant cinnamon rolls from Anne Sather's wonderful restaurant.
This is a happy memory, that inbcludes both Rose and Maris.
When I arrived at the church this morning and went downstairs to be with Rose one last time, there was a lady silently reading in the room . I put my hand on the silk-draped casket and silently communed with Rose for a few minutes, telling her how much i revered her, and thanking her for her kindness, inspiration, and wisdom; and that our paths had crossed in this lifetime.
As I walked around the room later, looking at the mementos and pictures that were there, the lady (named Mary) encouraged me to sit and look at a photo album.
There followed the best Anthroposophical conversation I have had in a long, long time. It was nourishment my soul had been craving; and it was a gift from Rose. It could not have happened without her bringing me there to that place at that time. Steiner encouraged renewal and freedom of the human spirit.
I tend to blame myself for everything whether it is my fault or not, and sometimes it is hard to tell which. I have felt guilty at times for not being more involved with the church and the Steiner branch.
Mary pointed out that Steiner provided guidance for people in various realms such as medicine, architecture, the arts, and religion. But he expected us to be our own doctor, our own priest. The church is there for people who want and need a church.
Hearing this put into words nearly brought tears of joy and relief. When you are filled enormous self-doubt and confusion, you can feel guilt at not being made another way. You feel shame at not being like most other people. You do not trust the truth that fills your own heart, and sometimes you turn away from it.
Mary and I talked about Maris, and she encouraged me to read Steiner's writings about suicide. She also encouraged me to immerse myself in happy thoughts and memories of Maris as that would enable his spirit to escape from the downward pull of remorse, guilt, and other heavy emotions fwkt by the survivors that can entrap spirits and keep them from moving on.
Sitting with our loved ones who have passed on, reading inspirational things to them, and having conversations about them, help their spirits to release from all their various bodies.
Our conversation, which was about Rose and the positive ways in which she had influenced our lives, also involved Maris; and it helped both of them. It allowed Rose to continue being a blessing to humanity, especially now that she can do it on a higher level. I believe this conversation between Mary and myself, which involved and included Rose, was very good for maris as well.
Steiner wrote a lot about our connection with the dead. I recently bought a book by him, called Staying Connected but have not yet finished reading it. Mary told me about another one called The Dead Are With Us. There are so many more...Between Death and Rebirth, and so on.
"So many books, so little time!"
When I left, I spoke aloud to Rose, thanking her once more for bringing inspiration and guidance to my life through our brief encounters. I thanked her for this special morning, and the good thoughts that would revive my life. I thanked her for her kindness to Maris, and for the blessing that his soul will always carry. And i asked her to say hello to him for me, and to look after him in the spirit world.
Thank you for everything, Rose, Please look after Maris.
Maris Michael Butta, Senior Airman, son of Raymond and Deena, nee Weglarz; brother of Alexander and Philip Butta. A 2006 graduate of Gordon Tech High School, Maris was a member of the 8th Intel squadron in the U.S. Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. He was decorated with the Air Force Achievement Medal and earned the following awards: Air Force Organizational Excellence Award, the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terror Service Medal and the Air Force Training Ribbon. In lieu of flowers, memorial donation to the Wounded Warrior Project, 7020 A.C. Skinner Pkwy., Suite 100, Jacksonville, FL 32256. Visitation Monday, 3 to 9 p.m., and Tuesday, 9 a.m., until time of service, 10 a.m., at Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home, 6150 N. Cicero Ave., Chicago. Interment St. Adalbert Cemetery.