Gertrud Rose

Trudy Rose was born in Riedering, Germany on September 29, 1927.  She died peacefully in the company of family in Tacoma, WA on December 22, 2021.

Where to start with this woman’s story? We will start at the end and work backwards.  Trudy was bound and determined to live to be 104 like her grandmother and anyone who knew her would have no trouble believing that would happen.  She had a dozen books on how to do it with sticky notes on pages on the more important points.  Matter of fact the many, many books in her house on art, beading, sewing, cooking and living long all had sticky notes on practically every page!  We always got a chuckle from that when we would see them.

She loved her art. I don’t think there was a medium she didn’t try. She was part of an art group for almost 50 years. They met regularly, and had many fun adventures together.  She loved to take road trips and take pictures so she could paint them later.  She loved painting, beading, quilting, making greeting cards and baking.  She very much enjoyed it when friends came over to work on crafts with her.  If someone was coming over or if she was going to visit someone she had to bake a cake. Her apple cake was so good as many can attest. If you ever had her Lebkuchen cookie at Christmas, it was a long year to wait for the next Christmas to bite into one of these bad boys! She shared the recipe with us just a few months ago so we can now carry on that tradition of the Lebkuchen cookie.

She also loved to garden and certainly had a green thumb. She could stick just about any branch in the dirt and it would grow. Her deck in the summer was covered with hundreds of flowers.  Her bird feeder, made by her late husband Jerman, brightened her days and gave her so much joy.

Trudy was a person who never stopped wanting to learn new things, she could barely keep up with herself:)  She could navigate an iPhone and iPad pretty well. And talk about a YouTube junky!  So many how-to videos.  To stay in shape she did yoga every morning and she could walk faster than most people 10 years younger.  Nothing was going to slow this lady down.

Trudy was an only child who grew up in the middle of WWII.  In her teens she loved to hike, snow ski, bike and swim.  She once told us a story of when she was riding her bike through an apple orchard in southern Bavaria, where she grew up.  She was wearing a red dress and riding on a white dirt road with apple trees on both sides. She could hear the sound of an airplane behind her when all of a sudden dirt started flying up on both sides of her. She was shocked and couldn’t believe what was happening. As the plane flew past she could see it bank and turn back towards her again to make another run at her. She realized now that she was being shot at and ditched her bike,  ran into the orchard and hid the best she could behind a tree. Bullets started flying around her blowing bark off the trees next to her. Fortunately she wasn’t hit.  After the ordeal she ran to the nearest farm to tell them what happened.  After she finished the story people in the room laughed and said they didn’t believe her. They said why would they want to shoot a girl on a bike.  There were also many bomb raids in which one hit her school.  She could remember hiding under a bush with a schoolmate watching it burn. I don’t remember her saying anyone was in it.  Growing up through war changes one’s outlook for sure. There were many food shortages and that wasn’t ever going to happen to her again. Her refrigerators, yes she had two, were always jammed full with food.

Shortly after the war she met our father Vern Timm,  a soldier, in Germany. They got married and had 3 children Linda, Yvonne and Jerry.  Being in the army you move around a lot.   We lived in Germany, then the U.S., then back to Germany and back to the U.S.  When we were young and living in Badhersfeld, Germany, she learned to paint with oil and she was a natural at it. My dad would sell her paintings to the GI’s on post.

Our mom was an inspiration and will be dearly missed by us all!

We are not planning an in person memorial at this time due to covid risks.   Please share any stories or pictures using the button below called Share A Memory.