Rose Breza, a devoted wife, educated business woman, loving mother, proud grandmother and great-grandmother.
I would love to share with you some specific memories that stick vividly in my mind from when I was a kid spending the weekends and summers at Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop’s house in Carteret, NJ.
I remember helping mom-mom hang laundry as a little kid on the clothes line running from the porch to the detached garage…We would string the whole thing up daily! All I really did was hold the clothes pins for her. Then Mike and I would somehow mess it all up later with our antics in the backyard…A bed sheet made a great bottle rocket target for us…she had incredible patience…with us.
I remember collecting pine cones with a homemade tool, comprised of a broomstick with 2 nails sticking out of the end, that I am sure Pop-pop built this technologically advanced back saving device in the basement workshop where absolutely anything in your imagination could be built.
I remember Mike and I putting on pretend Mass Services and Mom-mom was our only parishioner who attended regularly…although, I think it was the buttered bread we used for communion and not our sermons that kept her returning… J
I remember sitting on her lap while she watched TV in her famous green lounger, then re-appulstered to puke orange and later sold in 1999 at a garage sale in Columbus, MS, while I played with her hair pick restyling her hair. I’m sure she loved me messing up her hairdo.. J
I remember asking her about all the old pictures in her photo albums located inside the coffee table between Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s chairs. She never got tired of telling me the same stories over and over again about those old people in the photos…
I remember playing board games like monopoly and dominos with her on the living room floor. She hated it when Mike was the banker J, but was very proud of his accomplishments in banking later on in life!
I remember the smell of flounder fillets frying on the pan, or the distinct smell of cabbage rolls boiling on the stove, with the sight of a buttered roll on the kitchen table, waiting for us after a long day of fishing or crabbing. Don’t tell her, but I hated the flounder, but loved the cabbage rolls dipped in ketchup! Don’t forget the KFC nights…she would sacrifice her chicken bones to Pop-Pop to eat whole!
Oh, and don’t forget the sight of Mom-Mom cutting up all the wonderful fresh vegetables from her garden, for sulina feasts on the Fourth of July followed by fireworks. She never stopped serving us…
I remember my favorite family vacations in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard and the fortress like shade bunkers that Pop-pop used to build for her personal UV protection, because somehow simple sunscreen just was not enough. I thought they were cool forts to play in with her… J
And her presence at every birthday, graduation, special event, and holiday…she never missed one…even though she never had a driver’s license!
I can still hear her laugh when my brother Mike would make jokes at the dinner table about whatever situation they were discussing…I think Mike did it just to hear her beautiful laugh and catch a glimpse of her gorgeous smile…or perhaps, just to get her to stop worrying about all of us all the time.
I used to hate the way Mom-Mom would worry about us all the time. But now I realize that it was her special way of letting us know that she cared and loved us deeply. That was the way she knew how to express her love to us. That was the way she cared…
Now our beloved Friend, Wife, Grandmother, and Great-Grandmother is at peace. I would like to say to her that she no longer has to worry anymore, because I believe in our Faith and in God… and that we will forever keep her in our loving memory until we join her and Pop-pop again in Heaven’s backyard for sulina and fireworks on the 4th of July….everyday….
Until then, thank you for being a part of my life and providing me with a loving Mother, Carol, and a wonderful Aunt Nancy, …you will never be forgotten.
Oh, and don’t let Pop-Pop collect too much crap in his garage up there…although it was fun playing with all of it as a kid…
I Love You,
Your Grandson, Keith
