Rosalie Mildred Clayton

Rosalie Mildred Mann was the seventh child of Sampson “Samp” Mann and Rosalie Septillia nee Matheson. She was born in Santa Rosa, California on April 29th. 1928.

Samp was a carpenter, so the family moved around quite a lot. The family eventually moved to Saskatchewan before she was two years of age.

As a young girl in Saskatchewan, Rose had to help gather "buffalo chips", and stack them against the outside walls of their home. This was used to help insulate against cold weather and was also burned in the stove to heat and cook.

When Rose was about 14, she and her sister Cathy took on a job of peeling ties for the Railroad. Rose found the job to be interesting, but turned out to be a little painful, because her sister's tie peeler slipped and cut Rose on the left knee cap.

In 1951 she found out that she had Tuberculosis and spent 3 years in the San, also known as Tranquille. She had 5 ribs removed, and had surgery on her spine.

She married Frank Clayton on July 1st 1955 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, U.S.A. Together they had three children; Robert in 1957, Lynn in 1958 and Joe in 1962. When she went into labour with Joseph in 1962, the family started out from the mine at Canex, where her husband Frank was employed, to go to the hospital in Nelson. They stopped at the clinic in Salmo and the Doctor said he would be right behind them, but they didn't make it to Nelson. The doctor took Frank's car and had Frank follow in his car and went to a small shack in Hall Siding, carried rose in his arms and kicked open the door and said "move over old man were going to have a baby. Joseph was born on the kitchen table.

Rose loved to play solitaire, do puzzles, crossword puzzles and was an avid bowler and won many trophies. She baked bread well into her 80's and only quit due to her hand getting too sore from needing the dough.

On February 4th. 2017 Rose slipped on some ice and fell and broke her left wrist and left hip. At the Merritt hospital, the doctor who had checked her over figured that her hip was fine,and was discharged! She was taken home to her son's home to recover. She walked from the car, climbed a flight of stairs, about five steps, and later to bed. The next day her wrist was bothering her because the cast was too tight, and so was taken back to the hospital, walking down the stairs, climbing into the car and later into the hospital, than home again to her son's house. That night when she was heading off to bed, she got as far as the kitchen and couldn't walk any further. She asked to be taken back to the hospital, and an ambulance was called. The next morning they x-rayed her hip. The doctor (a different Dr. this time), came into the room and said that she shouldn't be walking on a broken hip! She was then transferred to the Kamloops hospital, where she underwent surgery on both her hip and her wrist. A couple of days later she was transferred back to the Merritt hospital to recover for a few days, then back to her son Robert's house, to finish her recovery! Able to walk up the steps and around the house with a one handed walker!

She lived with her son Robert and his wife for 5 years.

In November 2021 there was an "Atmospheric River", that caused severe flooding in Princeton, Merritt and on down to the coast, destroying highways as well. The home in which Rose was living was affected and everyone was forced to leave the town for a while. Rose and her son Robert his wife, Cindy and son Kyle had to live first in a fifth wheel trailer - it wasn't a good place for Rose so Robert sent Rose and his wife to Kamloops for a while until Robert was able to get a motel to live in. On May 23 while Robert and Cindy where working on their home to try and get it ready to move back into, Rose went outside and fell, breaking her right hip. She was transferred to Kamloops Royal Inland Hospital for surgery. She was transferred back to Merritt on May 27th, then on May 28th 2022 in the afternoon she passed away.