Rose Parrish
To most of the people that might be reading this that name would mean nothing to you. Let me tell you if it doesn’t then it is your loss. Rose Parrish is one of the sweetest people that I know. When I was little her and her husband Leo were part owners of a race track in Anderson called Anderson Speedway. Me and my grandmother (Leo’s sister) went there a lot and enjoyed the races and helped to do stuff. After a while Leo and Rose grew tired of being a part of that track and sold their shares. They then started a track in Muncie which they were pretty much sole owners of (at least I never heard of anyone else). Now this whole time since I was little I have loved racing and loved to go to the tracks. My uncle Leo was a flagman and travelled a lot to other tracks and flagged races. Rose and Leo often came back with things for me from races and places. Aunt Rose (as I called her, for the longest time not knowing that she was actually Great Aunt Rose) made me a set of flags, they got me jackets and my Grandma sewed patches of the drivers I liked on them. They got me banks and all sorts of other stuff, but beyond all that they were just nice to me all the time. Once they had started running Muncie Motor Speedway, I started working for them in the concession stands sometimes. It was fun to be part of the help and to be helping them out, plus everytime I worked I got 20 bucks : ). Sadly during the 3rd (I think) year of the new track Leo died. This put a terrible strain on Rosie, but she resolved to finish the season that had started. She finished the lease on the track grounds and then let it go. She lived in Indiana for a few more years and then moved to Tennesee to care for her father as he got older. She lived there for a while and about a year ago she bought a farm that I think she truely loved. About a month ago I found out that she had been diagnosed with cancer and that it was pretty far along. Tonight I found out that she is in the hospital and that she has a living will which states that she doesn’t want to be put on life support. Thus I think that the chances are good that she will not be with us for very much longer.