Rosa 'Bathsheba' - 4 November 2024

Bathsheba (/bæθˈʃiːbə/ or /ˈbæθʃɪbə/; Hebrew: בַּת־שֶׁבַע Baṯ-šeḇaʿ, lit. 'Daughter of Sheba' or 'Daughter of the Oath')was an Israelite queen consort. According to the Hebrew Bible, she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, with whom she had all of her five children. Her status as the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as monarch, made her the Gebirah (גְּבִירָה) of the Kingdom of Israel. She is best known for her appearance in the Book of Samuel, which recounts how she was summoned by David's royal messengers after he witnessed her bathing and lusted after her; David has Uriah killed and then marries Bathsheba.

Wikipedia

No matter what I do on any day these days the action reminds me of my Rosemary. Today I saw the only rose flowering in my fall garden, Rosa ‘Bathsheba’. I scanned it even though I have scanned it many times since I purchased the rose 3 years ago.  I had to find a new way of associating the rose with Rosemary. That was not tough.

I met my Rosemary in Mexico City mid December 1967 and by Christmas I had taken her to Veracruz to meet my mother who lived there. We were married in Coyoacán, on 8 February 1968..

At that time, and until recently Rosemary wore contact lenses (including the one-a-day ones), this meant that she never took showers and never swam in pools. When we lived in Burnaby, just as we were about to go somewhere, she would tell me (it happened more than once) that she had dropped one of her contacts on our terrible green shag carpet.

My mother had no tub so Rosemary took many showers (without her contact lenses and she really did not see well without them) during the day to escape Veracruz’s humid heat. Quite a few times when I heard the shower going I would go in to spy on her (my version of King David). Such was the sight of her in the shower that we would end up with shenanigans in bed which resulted in further showers.

Once Rosemary had her one a day contacts and later when she had laser surgery she would take many a tub bath. In our very nice Kitsilano bathtub I could see her from my bed. Many a time I simply took my clothes off and joined her in the tub. We used all kinds of Epson Salts. We lived an active bathtub life.

Now when I am in the tub and I can see the empty bed (two cats on it, though) I reminisce with melancholy those wonderful times.

My Rosemary, my Bathsheba – gone.