I'm a Rosebud

I confess to it, yes, I am a Rosebud. I don't tell many people and in fact I am not sure that I have ever shared this with my children. My mother is a Rosie, as in Rosie the Riveter. There are lots of Rosies located throughout the U.S. and over the past several years many of these women have begun to share their stories for the first time. About eight years ago my mom got involved with the Rosies and when she affiliated she signed me and my sister up as Rosebuds (The photo is my mom in her Rosie costume). When my dad was living my mom and dad would travel around the country meeting women who had all sorts of stories to tell about their work during the war. Over the years I would get the newsletter but frankly I didn't pay too much attention to much of the happenings as it seemed more like my mother's hobby than mine. Then the convention came to town and that changed my attitude.

Summer before last, Rosies from across the U.S. gathered in Atlanta for their annual convention. My sister, neice and I decided to join the program for an evening. We got to meet a group of the Tuskegee Airmen which was a fascinating experience but the best of the evening came when a tiny elderly woman in the crowd got up to tell her story.

This woman told us that as a WAC, she had been trained for a top secret mission. She was drilled on the importance of secrecy and understood that she was never to share her secret mission. And so for more than forty years she never told a single soul, not even her husband that she was the secretary that had typed up the battle plans for the invasion of Normandy. There were two copies (of course one carbon) and this woman had prepared the notes from the meetings that became history. It was one amazing story and thankfully a Rosebud is working to help record the story before her story is lost.

On Saturday the Atlanta area Rosies are meeting and I plan to be there and if I hear any more great stories, believe me I will be sure to post.