Rose Schadick and Mayor Michelle Gomez {Courtesy of City of Tamarac}
By Agrippina Fadel
Rose Schadick has always loved her birthdays, but her most recent one was a little extra special. On August 5, only three weeks after a bad case of COVID, Rose turned 104.
This week, the staff at Wickshire Senior Living planned a party with banners, music, and a cake, and Rose celebrated her birthday with friends and family.
Mayor Michelle Gomez stopped by to offer her best wishes and an official city proclamation, which had to be put aside for more important matters: Rose wanted her cake first.
“While the mayor was trying to present the proclamation, my mother said, “but what about the cake?” so we had to stop everything and serve the birthday cake first,” her daughter Brenda Braley explained, laughing.
Rose was born to Morris and Sadie Fox in 1918 in Norwich, CT. The oldest of five siblings, she outlived all of them. She married Isidore Schadick in 1938. They enjoyed 69 years of a “wonderful” marriage and shared one daughter, three grandchildren, Jill, Eric, and Heide, six great-grandchildren, and “four and a half great-great-grandchildren” — one of her granddaughters is due to give birth in December.
Rose and Isidore in 1937 and on the day of their wedding in 1938 (Courtesy of Branda Braley)
Rose’s first job in high school was working in a bakery part-time, filling the jelly donuts. “She would always take home the ones that had the most jelly in them — she would weigh them to make sure. It was her favorite thing,” shared Braley.
Her high school yearbook called her “extremely well-dressed with beautiful wavy hair,” According to her family, Rose still loves fashion, always making sure her hair, nails, and makeup are perfect.
Rose Schadick {Courtesy of Brenda Braley}
“She is always very concerned about her appearance. The first thing she does in the morning is put on her eyebrows, lipstick, and base cream,” her daughter said, adding that Rose always cares about being presentable to the world and makes sure to have a smile and a kind word ready for everyone.
After attending Norwich Free Academy and then the local community college, Rose worked as a Realtor before retiring to Margate.
Rose played piano for many years. She was very involved in charity and community events.
Tech savvy, Rose uses her iPhone and computer to keep in touch with her family and friends. She drove until her 99th birthday when she moved into Wickshire.
Rose Schadick {Courtesy of Brenda Barley}
Braley said living in Florida was always the plan for Rose and Isidore. “She loved the beach as a girl. She and her best friend, who ended up being her maid of honor, were in a sorority together and would be at the beach all summer long in Connecticut. They loved the shore,” Braley said.
Driving to Florida from Norwich, CT, was the ultimate goal of Rose and Isidore’s honeymoon in 1938, but they ran out of time. They got as far as Virginia and went back home.
“My dad said, “someday we will get there,” so maybe even then, they were planning to move to Florida in retirement,” said Braley, adding that her parents did make it to Miami in the 1950s and stayed at one the nicest hotels at the time, St. Moritz Hotel on Collins Avenue, for $11 a night.
“A first technicolor picture in the family album is one of them in Florida, with parrots on their shoulders,” she added, saying that Rose and Isidore loved to travel and went all over the world, including Hawaii, Europe, and Africa.
“Every vacation they had, they traveled. My parents loved seeing the world and meeting new people,” she said.
Isidore passed away in 2007. He was almost 91 and had battled cancer for four years, but it didn’t hold him down. The couple still traveled up until the very end and spent a lot of time visiting family and friends.
Braley said Rose is a genuinely happy person, despite a lot of tragedy and loss of loved ones she experienced, which is inevitable when a person lives such a long life. “But it never got her into depression. She always says, “I am glad to be alive and looking forward to my next birthday.”
Rose’s family thought they were losing her three weeks ago when she was near death with COVID. “But she was determined to make her 104th birthday, and if you saw her at the party, she was celebrating like nothing ever bothered her in her life. She is a determined person with a tremendous love of life and people,” said Braley.
Michelle Gomez said it was an “absolute honor” for her to be included in Rose’s celebration.
“It was wonderful to be there on her special day with her family and friends. It is amazing to see people who had lived and seen so much,” she said.
“Rose was very funny, ready for the cake, and a little overwhelmed with all the attention,” Gomez said, adding that Rose is a very sweet woman with a vibrant personality.
“I say this with a smile; people move to Tamarac and live longer because they are happy and healthy here and enjoying life. I would like to say there is something in Tamarac’s water – we have two more centennial birthdays this week,” Gomez added.
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