Excerpts from Rosella’s Celebration of Life gathering, held on 6 December 2019 Officiated by Gwendoline Rule

When someone dies, they become a living treasure in our hearts. Whilst we may feel a range of emotions – anger, pain, hurt, sorrow and grief – there is one thing that cannot be taken away and that is the experience of love and the experience of friendship that you all had with Rosella. My condolences go out to all of you. 

It is always difficult to sum up a person’s life, but hopefully in the next few minutes, I  will give you an essence of a woman who will be missed by all who knew her.

Rosella was born in Hereford on the 17 February 1955. She grew up in Newton Abbot Devon and came to live in London when she was a young woman.

True to her star sign Aquarius I noted  “Aquarians have a natural intelligence, they are fair minded and have a wit which often wins them a wide circle of eclectic friends, ultimately Aquarian’s stand alone. They will not compromise their ideals, morals or need for freedom and independence for anyone”.

When I met her friends Kim and Vanessa, I asked them to describe Rosella to me. Rosella was about 4’11” tall with a small frame who had a bubbly character and who was chatty and outgoing personality. There were always lots of smiles and giggles with Rosella. She was generous with her time and self with her friends. She wanted more than anything for the people around her to be happy. Overall she was a inspiring, spiritual, kind, and caring person who was equally happy to socialise with friends as well  spend time on her own. She was always ready to listen and she had the ability to know how to be present. She was the type of person who was extraordinarily supportive and had the knack for turning around anything challenging her friends might be experiencing, into a positive experience, in a way that made you feel like everything was going to be alright. 

When it came to food she was in her element. She was passionate about her food and was a vegetarian. Her enthusiasm of food would lead to want to tell everyone what she had eaten because she was known for sending letters to her friends abroad detailing the scrumptious food she had just devoured. The letters would contain descriptions on coffee, bread, pasta, eggs, etc. All the items that she had come across at the farmer's markets.  With Borough Market on her doorstep she could explore the different artisan bakeries and produce that was presented there, as well as the numerous eateries on her doorstep. She recently discovered the flavoursome vegetarian curry flavours of Thali dishes.

As an active person, Rosella would go out with friends to art galleries and exhibition, films, theatre, rambles in the countryside were all pleasurable pastimes for her.  She also had a particular interest in photography and would go to photographic exhibitions too. Then there was her yearly visit to Carshalton Lavender Fields where she would harvest the lavender. Another favourite haunt of hers was the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Her wide and varied interests included wildlife too. She had no TV  but would really enjoyed listening to audio books from the library, her favourite genre being fantasy. When she travelled she would often be going to see friends that live in Croatia, Seattle, Sante Fe and Tahoe.

During her working career, her younger years were spent working as an actress. Her curriculum vitae indicates the repertoire of talent that Rosella had, to secure and be successful in this industry.  Over the course of her career as an actress, she had accepted a variety of roles along the way which meant she had the opportunity to work in radio to TV, commercials to Fringe theatre, Cabaret and theatre and even voice recordings as well as film. These achievements demonstrated that she had a vast array of  skills that helped her secure these roles. Running concurrently with her acting work, she also became a tour director. She had worked in the travel industry for 40 years. She was well known in the industry and would enjoy meeting new people from all over the world.

Later in her life, Rosella became a sound healer and inspirational writer which then further developed into opening up her latent creative gifts through mandalas. She never trained as an artist and would often felt insecure of this fact in the beginning. So you may ask how did this all come about? Her spiritual journey began with healing, mainly in churches. As she continued she was drawn to sound. This lead her into sound healing. It was through this medium that she started to get bombarded with images. She didn’t know what these images meant. At the impressionable age of 6 years old she was told and then believed that she couldn’t draw. This belief continued throughout her life. But over time she started to realise that these images were messages and much more. Still unaware of her ability to draw, Kim encouraged her to just have a go. So they went to an art shop in Santa Fe at that time and bought a range of artistic mediums to experiment and explore with. That day they had bought protractors, pencils, paint brushes, paints, paper and rulers and the rest is history.

To begin with Rosella’s mandalas were precise and basic but as the years went by they became more decorative, elaborate and intricate not only their design but in the detail of the design, colours and patterns used. There were times when Rosella was not happy with the colours for instance then she would painstakingly go over the finished mandala with another colour.  Through meditation she was guided towards affirmations that went with each mandala. Absorbed in her own surroundings, she would work well into the night with her passion for drawing mandalas. Over time her work was exhibited and sold in various places. She also got commissioned to do personal mandalas as well. For instance she has a mandala on display in the The Spa in the Café Royal as well as in a Birthing Centre. She also had mandalas published in magazines such as the Healing Trust. Additionally her work can be found in following shops - Buddha on a Bicycle in Covent Garden, Tree House in Crouch End, Clearly Destiny near Euston.

In her quest to help people she even developed a mandala card set of 48 cards that she would use to conduct readings, each mandala card had a message. This message that was given to her through her meditations. She also created a self-help book, filled with words of wisdom and affirmations. She would regularly take a booth at the Mind Body and Spirit held at Olympia every year  and she held workshops throughout the year that included guided meditations to help other people create their own mandala’s.

Rosella will be remembered for bright smile, her listening ear and her beautiful mandala’s. She was always ready to listen and had the ability to know how to be present. She was generous with her time and self, with her friends. She wanted more than anything for the people around her to be happy, But her legacy is that she found her true passion in life through her mandalas. It made her heart sing and gave her much pleasure, joy and contentment.

But I just want to leave you with a couple of memories of times spent with Rosella. First of all I want to mention a trip she took with Kim to Mexico. Unbeknown to Kim, Rosella couldn’t drive and on this particular night she was about to find out why Rosella does not have a driving license. You see Rosella and Kimberly went to dinner  and after dinner Kimberly, who was up for an adventure probably due to  them both consuming two very strong margaritas, decided to hand Rosella the keys to the golf cart to drive home. Rosella overshot the entrance to the driveway which then required her to make a U turn.  Well she didn't cut it hard enough and  the two of  them ended up hopping the curb lurching into the jungle surrounded by palm ferns and other tropical landscaping which had got stuck in the cart!  Giggles could be heard for miles around Puerto Vallarta! 

Another memory I would like to remind you all of was when Rosella went to visit Branka in Croatia.  In her quest for wanting to help, Rosella asked Branka if there was anything she could do. At which point Branka said “yes please, it would really help if you could help out with a bit of gardening”. Branka had a  well-tended garden at this point. Nonetheless, Branka gave her a pair of secateurs with a vision of her just dead heading a few plants. Well Rosella must have got the taste for working in the garden, because as soon as she got the secateurs in her hands there was no stopping her!  She exterminated the raspberry bushes, as well demolish the rest of the garden with her excessive pruning and the look of Branka face…  well that was a sight to have seen!

Then there is the Beet Root Soup in Seattle Story – hey  I am going to leave that one there for you to continue to talk about later today … 

I know that you will each have your own wonderful and unique memories of the time that you spent with Rosella, so we are now going to pause for a moment for quiet personal reflection to give you each the chance to remember Rosella in your own way. Please use this time to send her your love and your thoughts or blessings so that she can take with her to her final resting place. Her dear friend Vanessa will be singing Sunshine of your Smile.

The thing we can be sure of is that Rosella would not want to be remembered in sadness, but rather in love with a smile and with a laugh and with thoughts of all the many good and happy moments in her life. So, try if you can to turn your grief around; don't only think of Rosella in terms of what you have lost. Try to remember everything that you have gained from her life, and give thanks for all the love, the laughter, the friendship and the inspiration that she brought into every one of your lives. Be grateful that Rosella was a part of your lives and let her character, her kind nature and her deeds – live on.

We are grateful for the life that Rosella has lived, and for all that her life has meant to us. We were privileged to have seen her face, to share good times and bad times; we will cherish all of these memories alongside her words, her deeds and her character. We cherish her friendship and most of all we cherish her love.

Rosella said: “I wish to be of service – or helping people realising the best within themselves. Each person is a jewel and I want to help people to see their gifts and talents” I believe this is the message that she has given to all of you. “By helping one person to transform themselves by changing the way they see themselves”.  her view was  by lifting ourselves we lift others.  This was her gentle way of having a ripple effect on our society.

Rosella has truly left us her legacy in her work and her words.