Huntington woman’s garden opens a window into a long, full life

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, July 30, 2022

Beyond the corner fence, the Huntington, Oregon hillsides roll away in every direction. The golden grassy velvet sways in the morning breeze and casts the hill’s shadows platinum blonde.

But bursting through and over the fence, a green bounty nearly escaping containment. Within, an abundance. Flowers, fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants to be catalogued at some length, a streaming fountain and glints of rainbow from discs on string.

A passer-by might feel a wince of concern, seeing an 80-year-old woman on hands and knees working the earth, lugging stones and chopping with shovels. But for Rosemarie O’Donnell, the strain is secondary to the freedom in it.

Rosemarie’s path through the garden is one that tracks all the way back, over little roots and between flowers, to her earliest memories of home.

“My mom had eight of us,” said Rosemarie, “so she always had fruit trees.” She says she spent a lot of time nurturing the trees as they came to bear fruit. Rosemarie’s young experience of growing and caring for living things was defining throughout her life. She’d spend over a decade working in a nursery with her sister, and many years as well working as a nurse caregiver.

Rosemarie’s sense of adventure connected her to her lifelong friend Corrine, who is related to the Droste family of Droste Chocolates in Rotterdam, Holland. Together, she and Corrine drove cross-country to New York, a trip she’s managed three times in her life, and even spent a year there.

When she was working as a nurse in California in her 20s, she’d found herself starting to burn out on the life the West coast had to offer. She was packing and preparing for adventure, in fact planning to see the Europe her friend had described to her, when she chanced to meet Robert O’Donnell.

She’d wanted to see the world, but for her, Robert would become one of the biggest parts of it.

“I never made it to Europe!” She laughed at the irony: “He was a jack of all trades, and all Irish.”

Robert was a marine, a lineman, a metal detectorist; he had a wild chart of talents, on November 19, 1967 he also became her husband and, about a year later, a father. Rosemarie and Robert raised four children, Annie, Mike, Katie and John.

Their eldest, Annie, had grown, graduated and moved out to serve in the Air Force full time when Rosemarie and Robert got the call. Somewhere along Highway 31, in the desert stretches of Central Oregon, she’d gotten into a single-car accident and passed away at only 19, August 25, 1987.

Annie’s brothers and sister went on to do well for themselves — the youngest turned 45 this year — and Rosemarie and Robert found peace with time. The couple spent over half a century together, 54 years.

In the sunset of his life, Robert was diagnosed with prostate cancer; the disease was already in its fourth stage and spreading to his other organs. Rosemarie’s skill as a nurse could at least make him comfortable as it manifested.

The medicine he needed at that stage of life, and that stage of cancer, was a gamble in itself. Though he fought, he said his due goodbyes and made his arrangements. After the onset of an unexpected infection, and the coma that followed, Rosemarie knew the oxygen was the only thing keeping his heart going.

“You’re gonna see Annie,” she told him, and let Robert pass in the company of his loved ones on March 6, 2020.

Rosemarie’s own health needed support as well, spurring her and daughter Katie to uproot and relocate to Huntington, where they could both afford land and an easy drive for medical care. They’ve only been on the lot since September of 2021.

“I have to get infusions every six weeks. Remicade — it’s very strong. Two to three hours of infusions every time.”

She proudly revealed the spot on her arm where the IV had most recently parted through skin and delivered life-changing relief.

When she was first treated, she was already feeling the broad effects of rheumatoid arthritis in her major joints. The consequences of the condition have the body’s immune system attacking its tissue at a cellular level.

Pain and stiffness are a given, but the condition can literally change the shape of the joints in its wake, further separating a person from any semblance of an active life. Fortunately, her medicine worked wonders for the ailment, and her faith and family kept her spirits bright.

“Within three days (of treatment) I could get up on my own. I didn’t need Katie’s help.” Rosemarie’s daughter studied home health care and lives with her. She helps Rosemarie get back and forth between infusions and appointments.

For fun, the two might pan for gold one day, travel another, scout for rocks and flowers the next, and 2 miles up the road there’s the Snake River they can visit at any time. But largely, Katie leaves the gardening to the expert.

From outside the fence, you might mistake Rosemarie’s efforts as too much, perhaps even a risk, but she’s doing simply what she’s always excelled at, ever caring for the living things around her. And if you ask nicely, she’ll probably open the gate for a tour.