Rose

 

Rose and I met in 1996 when she was a branch member in Teshi, a neighborhood in Accra. She was training to be a seamstress. Her beautiful smile was reflected in her eyes, lighting up her entire face and reaching out to light up the faces of those around her. She was an early member of Hope for Life and, aside from the coordinator, was the first member of the Teshie branch. She got around with a hand-powered tricycle, which she has maintained and still uses from time to time to this day. 

 

In her tricycle at a recent branch meeting

 

 

When I returned to Hope for Life in 2009, Rose had become the branch coordinator for the Teshie branch of HFL. Branch coordinators know where their members live, maintain contact with them and visit from time to time. They know what is happening in their lives, and are the primary contact for the HFL administration (the president, the administrator, me). Branch coordinators come to the periodic executive meetings, which are when all the branch coordinators gather at the main house to discuss their branches and Hope for Life overall. I already knew and loved Rose, and from 2009 – 2011 this gave me the opportunity to know, appreciate and love her even better.

Rose was one of her branch's representatives at the recent HFL elections

One of the beautiful things about HFL is that the members become brothers and sisters. There’s a part of HFL called Bethany House. It is the “headquarters,” but so much more. It is a home away from home for HFL members, a place where they can have a break for a few days and be with other HFL members, to relax, laugh and make new friends who might also be staying at the house during their visit. The house plays an important role in HFL members becoming family. While at the house and attending the meetings, Rose had met a many people from other branches – a number of whom became lifelong friends, despite sometimes living quite far from each other.

A year or so ago, Geoffrey (from the mushrooms) joined for a visit to Rose. He and she had met years ago at Bethany House when he was the executive secretary for Hope for Life.

 

About three years ago when I was still in France involved with migrants, I was contacted by a HFL member from a sister branch in Tamale, almost 400 miles (over 600 km) from Accra, taking at least 11 – 12 hours by road to get there. Rose was extremely sick – stomach pains, bleeding. It sounded like life and death and she was being rushed to the hospital. 

The beauty of HFL is this family spirit I mentioned. The woman from Tamale, Mariatu, came to be with Rose in the hospital. Another friend from another side of Accra also visited her; and another from yet a different part of Accra also spent time with her. HFL members, friends, brothers & sisters from over the years all came to support Rose at this time.

Rose was diagnosed with a tumor in her abdominal cavity. Due to her scoliosis, it could not be determined which organ the tumor was attached to. The doctors decided to give medicine to try to shrink the tumor so they could better determine how to proceed, whether surgery or some other option.

Non-Ghanaian friends who knew Rose from when they had been lay missionaries at Hope for Life, and friends of theirs who had visited and also met Rose, contributed to help her get the treatment needed at the time and over the following years.

So, for the past 3 or so years, Rose’s life has involved doing follow-ups, labs, doctor visits and so on.

My first visit to Rose upon my return a couple years ago.

When I came back to Ghana almost 2 years ago, Rose was one of the people I visited early on. She was still taking the medicine as well as other meds for the pain, but assured me all is fine (which is a standard assurance here). Mostly when I go visit her, she is her old self with that beautiful smile. But, at times when she is just down, literally….sitting on a low stool with her head down on another stool…you can see the pain in her face.

I’ve been fortunate the past six months because Joe and his team have an outreach clinic for children with cerebral palsy once per week on that side of Accra. Since I’ve been busy with the bakery and all else going on, I haven’t been able to get out to visit the HFL members as much as I would like, so I volunteered to be their driver on clinic days. This gives me a chance to have time with people (and we can save some money that would have spent on transport). Sometimes during the clinic, I stay and help out a bit. Other times, I go visit members, like Rose, while the clinic is going on. For the past 3 months or so, the outreach team and I have just been stopping to visit Rose after the clinic closes for the day. Joe’s team members are trained in a special, healing and spiritual therapy called René Mey. They always give Rose, and whoever else might be visiting her at that time, special attention.

Sarah, a part of the outreach team, doing René Mey therapy for Rose, while Rachel does the same for  Moses.

Recently, due to Rose's pain and difficulty getting around regularly, she stepped down as coordinator of the Teshie branch. Moses was voted to take her place. He regularly visits Rose and has become a René Mey recipient, as seen in the first picture above.

In the '90s, Moses was one of the children in the Teshie branch. Hope for Life, thanks to donations at that time, helped him with his mobility aids and to get through school. Today he is married with three children and works in Accra's Ridge Hospital.

 

Last week Wednesday, Rose went for an ultrasound scan and on Friday to the doctor for the review. I was able to join for the doctor visit, and it was explained that the current status couldn’t be determined based solely upon the ultrasound. More labs needed to be done and the previous scans needed to be brought so they can decide how to proceed. Rose’s brother Seth takes good care of Rose, accompanying her for the tests, scans and doctor visits. On Monday this week he took the new lab results and the scans for the doctors to review. They advised him to return this Friday to find out if it will be possible for surgery or whatever the next steps will be.

So, the story of Rose’s journey through this is to be continued….