Little Rose

By Rhonda Jerrett

Little Rose West was a girl from Syracuse, New York, in 1983. Little Rose overcame so many traumas. She was raped, beaten, shot, and even hit by a car, but she still chose to see the beauty of life. She knew that just because horrible things happen--and boy, she endured everything imaginable--she knew that didn't decide who you were or even where you would end up someday. She never focused on the horrible experiences she may have had to overcome, but instead, she just kept dreaming. And boy, dreams do come true. Sometimes the dreams that are put in your heart when you are just a little girl, she always knew, are there for a reason: first, to give you hope when there seems like nothing good could possibly happen; second, to keep you on the path that is truly laid out for you, no matter who or what may hurt you or even abuse you.

This story takes her from a broken-down backyard daydream to a promising fashion designer, which takes her to a once-in-a-lifetime romance in Tuscany, Italy, which becomes the love of her life. And boy, she deserved it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890618351

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

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Little Rose

Rhonda Jerrett

Copyright © 2024 Rhonda Jerrett

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-89061-834-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89308-390-3 (Hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-89061-835-1 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated in loving memory to my brother Dave.

Chapter 1

Little Rose West was all of eleven years old. She was different from most everyone else it seemed. She was that kind of kid that was always thinking. She had an awesome imagination. She would imagine living in different, and more beautiful, even sometimes larger places than where she was surrounded by up till now. She almost knew what was still to come, without really knowing. But she was sure that it would be awesome in every way and looked forward to it with almost an excitement for no reason. Without knowing a thing. Just a feeling she would always have. She even could imagine all the great people she would come to know someday, whom she had not even met yet. She always thought that she felt that way maybe when most everyone did not was because everyone didn't see how lucky they were yet to have the amazing people in their own lives like she already got to have in her life so far. She had a great family, and she enjoyed her friends so much. She acted like everything else besides that was like an extra bonus in life. Rose just kept on believing for her beautiful life to be. She always enjoyed the simplest things.

One day, little Rose West would find herself on her deck, which was on the back of her home. This deck was like nothing you could even imagine. The front of the house looked like an average two-story home. But this deck on the back of the house was three different levels and was huge. This deck was built and placed so high up. At least it looked that way because of the way it was built partly in the hill that the house was built on, and the basement wall was exposed in the back of the house. This is where the first level of the deck was extended off, which was thirty-five feet long and went out thirty feet from the house, and the second level was all of fifty feet long and twenty-five feet wide off the house. The second level started halfway of the house just like the other two levels and extended another fifteen feet past the right side of the house built right into the hill. That was the main floor and had two sets sliding doors that led you out to the deck from the family living room and another set of doors from Mary's bedroom. There was another door off the kitchen. The door from the kitchen was a Dutch door that was so unique. Rose loved that door so much. The door was split where you could have the top open while the bottom was still closed. The top floor of the deck came off the upstairs hallway, which was just a regular-sized door with a metal screen on the door, and the deck was the same thirty-five feet long as the first level but only fifteen feet wide. But every layer looked perfectly over the neighborhood that was all around the house, which consisted of at least a hundred of houses surrounding Rose's home. The deck was gorgeous. The wood was a dark cedar. The house was the same color and was a cedar shake siding. The house and deck were one of the first homes built in the neighborhood. They used this house to show other people, potential buyers, what they could build for them if they wanted a house in this neighborhood. And they went up quick that's for sure. Any one of the levels of the deck that Rose would pick to sit on would be just as inspirational to daydream on as the other. This was her place to just escape and clear her mind and also daydream about her life. The year before when her mother, brothers, and herself moved in to their new home, there was a horrible thunder and lightning storm that day and with a ton of rain too, which created a lot of damage from fallen tree branches. There deck was now in need of repairs though of some splits in the wood, and there was an open hole in a corner of the deck on the top level. It ended up being a five-foot-wide hole. But the deck was so large Rose overlooked those areas easily. They rarely went on the top level anyway. Everywhere you could sit, still was a breathtaking view. Everywhere you looked at seemed extra beautiful because with the most beautiful light blue skies that always existed in the summers in upstate New York made everything you could look at seem picturesque. It was a beautiful warm midsummer day in Upstate New York in the 1980s. The sunflowers were blooming, and those sunflowers would grow to such a bright yellow, with the fullest black-brown center. They always caught your eye wherever they would grow because they looked to grow fifteen feet tall sometimes. You couldn't miss them if you tried. Upstate New York had the most beautiful blue skies also in the summertime, also the biggest white fluffy clouds you could imagine. Probably because they had so many lakes around the area, Rose would sit looking at the clouds all afternoon, sometimes, and would imagine different things in the clouds for fun. One day, she would picture castles and, on another day, animals and sometimes it seemed like people dancing at a ball almost with gowns flowing in the wind that they would be wearing if they were at a ball. She would also be able to see her whole neighborhood from her view on her deck in her backyard, which was very big. Even though the house was small for the five of them, it definitely was worth it, because the backyard was so beautiful and so large. She felt like a movie star up there on her deck. She didn't even notice how unsafe it was really for her to be there. It should have been torn down year prior, but she would just walk around the holes and loose boards and always find a secure spot. She thought it was secure, but it definitely wasn't. She seemed to always wear her rose-colored glasses, no pun intended. No matter how sad and lonely the world would be around her, Rose always looked for the good in everything and everyone.

She always knew, when she sat there on her deck, she was going to be something great someday. Her deck time was her dreamtime. She would dream of a beautiful home that she would live in someday that would have huge windows all over it. Sometimes she would even draw it on paper because it was so real in her mind. She would even draw large gates around it. She would see it so clearly. It would always have these different-pitched roofs also, which was really strange because at that time, she had never even seen that kind of roof yet, yet she knew that's what she liked. It's not like there was Internet yet to even come across a picture like that. She would see these certain flowers, too, in her mind and try to draw them. She would draw her house on a hill, over another hill. She would sit there for hours sometimes, with her drawing pad and pencils, always alone with her thoughts and her imagination. She was always grateful for everything. Right down to just being able to have pencils and paper, because she knew she was very lucky to have that.

Inside Rose's home was her mother Mary West and her three older brothers. Rose's father wasn't there because her mother and father divorced the year before. Her mother Mary West was a beautiful woman. She was tall and thin with the prettiest hazel eyes. She kept her hair at a medium length with the natural wave she had in her light brown hair. Rose looked just like her mother. But Mary was very serious though most of the time and very strict. She needed to be to raise three sons. Most people didn't divorce in the 1980s, but Mary did not pay attention to what others did. She always did what she thought was good for her family and herself alone. Rose's father made sure she had a home, maybe not as glamorous as the house they had when they were all together but large enough for the five of them to live comfortably. And easy for Mary to be able to maintain without Gerald there to help daily. The boys were rarely home anymore being teenagers for one and also liking the girls and having hobbies, which were one and the same sometimes.

Daniel West was the oldest. He was seventeen and driving now. He was tall, dark, and handsome like his father Gerald. He was six feet two inches tall and has the thickest dark brown wavy hair, just like his dad. His father had a love for classic cars just like Daniel did, even though Daniel was seventeen and he had an old sole. Probably because he was the oldest. He always tried to help everyone all the time. He didn't really know how to relax once in a while. He was more high strong than his siblings. He was more of a worrier, strong and fierce.

Robert and Riley West were twins. They were fifteen now and only loved their dirt bikes and girls. Oh and a lot of food. They were always going through a growth spurt it seemed because they ate so much food and would end up being two inches taller every couple of months it seemed. All the boys looked like each other. Most people that saw the boys for the first time would wonder if they were triplets. Daniel liked that because he didn't want to feel like he was left out. Riley and Robert were always horsing around and playing practical jokes on everyone any chance they got. They were all very charming also. The ladies loved them that's for sure. They didn't even know how many people would admire them when they would get to know them. They were just friendly and the happy-go-lucky type.

Everyone seemed too busy with their one live so much that Rose felt like she was mostly alone with herself with her own thoughts and imagination. The boys had mostly the same hobbies as each other and the same interests as each other, but Rose liked different thing than playing football and riding motorcycles and looking at cars which the boys constantly talked about. She was more into dress up and was already designing outfits. So she would be alone most of the time. But when Rose would get out in the neighborhood, she just went around making as many friends that she could. She watched her brothers be friends with each other, and Rose loved that about the three of them. How well they got along most of the time. It was intriguing to anyone who knew them. The boys had great charisma. Sure, they would fight, but it seemed like they were playing even when they would fight each other. Everyone who met her brothers wanted to be their friend and act just like them. Their father was the same way.

It was always so crazy in Rose's house. Rose's father didn't want to be married anymore one day, after twenty years, her father wasn't going to be around anymore as the father figure in the house. Instead he was a father while living miles away from the home. And Gerald was gone working most of the time too. That was going to be hard to get used to. Mary and Gerald agreed on the whole idea. They tried and talked about it, and they couldn't agree to still try to make it work. Her mother and father divorced the year before, and Rose and her brothers had to live now in a smaller house than they had before the divorce. But at least they knew they at least still had the five of them, and Rose's father never lived in this house with Rose and her brothers that they currently live in.

Her parents agreed to sell the old house they had together. It was so nice. They sold the home they had together the year before, which was gorgeous. The home had a walk-up bathtub and an aboveground a large beautiful in ground pool, which definitely made you look very rich if you had those kinds of things in the 1980s. Gerald made great money working for the government. Rose wasn't sure exactly what her father did for a job. She was always told he just worked for the government. Which meant, she felt, don't ask; he always would leave for work in a suit, though. She hoped she would find out. And instead of an apartment for Mary, Mary moved the four children into a small house. Rose's father, Gerald, moved in with his best friend, Daryl Dunkin. Gerald thought that made sense because he would end up leaving the country sometimes for weeks, even months, and so did his friend Daryl. They both had the same job but weren't always away on the same assignments at the same time, so it would work out well. If one wasn't home, the other one would be. It's not like he needed it. He worked for the Secret Service, she thought, and she knew he made great money. It's not like he needed much for one person either. They both worked for the Secret Service, she thought. Even so, he made great money. At least that is all she really knew about his job because it was never talked about.

Mary didn't like that she was doing everything by herself without her husband now. And her husband got to live with his best friend, who was an amazing man. He achieved a Purple Heart for god's sake, and because he was gone all the time now, he wasn't in the home anymore and wasn't even in the country most of the time lately either, so he wouldn't even be able to come by and just visit lately. She would wonder what he would be doing when he was away so long. It was habit from being married to him for the past twenty years. And they weren't together anymore as a husband and wife. His responsibility was always for Rose and the three boy. He didn't want any of them to go without any more than they were already going to have to. To live as a family unit wasn't going to be anymore. And he always felt bad for that.

It was difficult since Rose's parents split up, and her mother didn't have a great job at the time. She worked at a candle factory in Syracuse. She had to raise four children, and her job didn't pay great. Rose always felt that her mother thought that Gerald would come back and help her more but didn't yet. Rose knew her mother still had love for him. She thought she probably always would; they spent a lot of their lives together.

Rose's brothers got to experience a better way of life a little longer than Rose. It was a big difference that her brothers got everything they needed and wanted until they were at least fourteen and sixteen, and she was only eleven now.

When the three boys were raised with Gerald, he made sure they had everything. Robert and Riley loved riding motocross because Gerald started buying them little dirt bikes when they were only five years old. So they have always had the best motorcycles you could own, and they each had one. Daniel was more of a car guy, though, more than a motorcycle guy, but he did have a couple motorcycles also but was way more a car guy. Gerald always took him to the car races. The twins didn't care much about cars. Gerald would always took Daniel to the car races any chance he got. Gerald enjoyed them as well. Daniel was always working on a project building some kind of car or doing something with a motor. Robert and Riley were always at the dirt track all of the time or making dirt tracks around town where they could to practice.

Rose was always playing dress up with her clothes, even some of her mother's clothes, when she wasn't home. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, Rose thought. She loved clothes with such a passion. She loved everything about clothes. She loved intermixing things together; you would never think of combining together on her old Barbies, and it would look so sharp. Making scarfs as belts is one example and even skirts with leggings. That was also a time to daydream of her beautiful future. She would put clothes together for her Barbies that were made from rags, and all her friends from around the neighborhood would make her make clothes for their Barbies too. She was like the designer