Roslynn Ann Thom

Roslynn “Rozzie” Thom.

If you knew her, she was Roz or Rozzie. Roslynn was generally reserved for strangers, often followed by a correction when it inevitably came out as “Rosa-lynn,” or for those moments when her twin brother was particularly irritated with her.

Roslynn was born August 10, 1951, in Fremont, Nebraska, to Elna and Paul Thom. Along with her older sister, Paulette, and twin brother, Ronald, Rozzie spent her early childhood in North Bend before the family later made their home in Tecumseh, where she attended high school.

Rozzie entered the world approximately a minute and a half before her twin, a fact that technically made her the older twin, although Ron always maintained that he simply let her go first because he was a gentleman. Among the three siblings, each had a personality distinctly their own, and Rozzie was unmistakably the sassy one.

She loved to laugh, had a wonderfully snarky sense of humor, and wasn't afraid of the occasional, but well-timed, off-color remark. Ask whether she and her twin were identical and her response was much more likely to make you blush than teach you anything about genetics. She spoke from the gut and usually told you exactly what she thought, but there was a sweetness underneath the sass that the people who loved her knew well.

Rozzie gave the kind of hugs that enveloped you. She said “I love you” freely and made sure you knew she meant it. She was the person who always seemed to have a tissue tucked away somewhere in her bag, whose laugh or giggle you could hear from across the room, and who absolutely did not want anything cherry flavored. She offered support, encouragement, honesty, or simply the reminder that you weren't facing something alone.

Caring for others was woven throughout Rozzie's life. She contracted polio when she was one year old, leaving lasting effects in one of her legs. Yet Rozzie went on to build a career in one of the most physically demanding areas of nursing. She became an LPN in 1977 and later earned her associate degree in nursing from the College of Saint Mary, spending much of her career as a floor nurse. The long hours on her feet and physical demands of caring for patients required a strength and determination that Rozzie carried throughout her life. When her mother, Elna, reached the end of her life, Rozzie brought that same strength and tenderness home, helping care for her through her final days. Her instinct to care for others extended far beyond the hospital.

Rozzie had a way of collecting people and making a place for them in her life.

Her family included the one she was born into and the family she gathered along the way. She was a daughter, a sister, an aunt from the very beginning, a friend who stayed for

decades, a fellow traveler in recovery, a proud cat mom, and something different and special to each person who loved her. Some relationships began in childhood or family, while others grew through nursing, friendship, AA and GA, or simply being in the right place at the right time. Rozzie built connections that endured through different seasons of life, and many of those friendships became family in every way that mattered.

She also made sure the younger people in her life understood that being loved by Aunt Roz did not mean getting away with everything. More than one child knew the significance of the question, “Do we need to go to the bathroom and discuss this?” Usually, no trip to the bathroom was actually required. The warning was enough.

Her cats received their own version of that enormous heart. Rozzie loved them fiercely, and it seemed fitting that a woman with such a gift for gathering others around her would always have room in her heart for another four-legged family member, too.

Life gave Rozzie plenty of reasons to draw upon both her strength and her sense of humor. Through celebrations, losses, challenges, recovery, ordinary days, and unexpected turns, she continued showing up for the people in her life. Friendships lasted decades. Communities became family. Family wasn't always determined by a family tree. Rozzie's life became intertwined with people from many different places, and she loved them in the way that was uniquely hers.

Above all, Rozzie loved her people. She could make you laugh, tell you exactly what she thought, make you straighten up with a single question, and then wrap you in a hug big enough to remind you that you were loved.

To be loved by Rozzie was to know it.

And if you told her, “I love you,” there was only one way she was going to let that conversation end.

“I love you more.”

Arrangements pending at this time. Celebration of Life Memorial Service to take place at a later date.