Delphine Roese, 103, a homemaker, lived most of her life in the Rogers Park neighborhood and earned a reputation for stopping to smell the flowers.
Mrs. Roese was born Feb. 7, 1894, at home and died April 11 in the Ballard Nursing Home in Des Plaines.
“She celebrated all her life and her birthdays,” said her niece Roz Conway. “Feb. 7 became like a national holiday in our family. We all gathered to be with her and bring the latest great-grandniece or great-grandnephew. One of the last responses she gave was a smile when we told her another child had been born in the family.”
Mrs. Roese and her family attributed her long life to her belief in holistic medicine and her ability to avert stress.
“She knew to enjoy the sunset, to stop and smell the flowers, to pet a dog and to touch the face of a child,” Conway said.
Her family was one of the first Jewish ones to reside in Rogers Park. Mrs. Roese recalled as a child traveling with her parents out to the New Light Cemetery in what is now Lincolnwood. The streetcar they took had one track and went only as far as Western Avenue. The passengers then walked almost 2 miles to the small cemetery.
She was the caretaker for her parents and several of her sisters before they died.
Other survivors include a stepdaughter, Rosella Wambach; and a brother.
Services were private.
