A month ago Roselinda K. Rampp passed away after a difficult battle with ovarian cancer. As this video shows, Rose was deeply passionate about sharing the joy of music with others. She was one my former supervisors at the Levine School of Music and had a huge influence on my professional career. I credit her with playing a part in my decision to pursue a career as an arts administrator. Her dedication to help build not only a program, but a school, that would provide a strong musical presence in the community was inspiring to me.
Before I go on I feel the need to be completely honest. Although I loved Rose, our relationship wasn't perfect. Our personalities and work habits could be very different, so sometimes we butted heads. After I left Levine I pulled away a bit, but in the past year I began to realize how big a role she'd played in my life when I started to apply for graduate school to study arts administration. I'm not sure if I'd be as passionate creating my own performing arts institution at this stage in my life if it wasn't for the experiences that I had working in her office so early in my career.
I hope she knew I thought she was a woman with wonderful ideas and I admired her passion for the arts. Sometimes, I'm not sure if she realized how unique she was. I would say one of my biggest pet peeves with her were the moments when I felt like she didn't. She had a heart bigger than I think her body could hold. If something bad happened to someone she cared about she would start crying before a tear could even fall down their own cheek. She was beautiful and funny. Even after she lost her hair during her first fight with cancer in 2008 her beautiful eyes still shone right through. She was so giving wanted everyone to be happy. As I look around my own bedroom, I see I have so many items that were gifts from her.
When I moved to New York she told me she was afraid I would forget her. How could she think I ever would? The memory of her was long ago tightly woven into the story of my life. I'm still processing the fact that she's actually gone. When I see pictures of her smiling face, it really hits me.
I want to end with a "Rose quote" that I posted on my wall the day after she passed away:
"I love hearing the children sing as they come out of class, give out hugs, and play with each other. Thank you for being a part of our lives."
Actually....when I think about it, I feel like it might be more appropriate to use a quote that accurately sums up our relationship. Well, I know she would laugh at this anyways:
Rose: That's what she said!
Me:...I should have never taught you that.
<3 I won't forget.
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To learn more about ovarian cancer, please visit the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition website.
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Thank you for posting this. I am not sure what led me here, but I was a classmate and friend of Roselinda at Northern VA Community College. I called her Lucy because she reminded me of Lucy Van Pelt from of The Peanuts gang - even drew a picture of Lucy for her.
ReplyDeleteI reconnected with her in 2010, I believe, on Facebook, but she closed down her account soon afterward. She said she had music with her singing that she wanted to send me, but never did. I always wondered how she was after that.
Then this morning I decided to look her up, and my curiosity led me here. I am sad. She was very special to me. I take comfort in knowing that she made such an impact on people through her love of music. She left this Earth doing exactly what she loved doing.
Erika, I revisit this from time to time hoping that I'm not the only one that holds her close to my heart and remembers who she was and what she gave to us as an educator, a mentor, and as a friend. I was one of her first students--you and I worked together at Levine (I was an intern from 2009 to 2012, assisting teaching at Southeast) briefly, but her legacy is long. I love this woman. I hope that others who come here remember her passion for teaching and her love of her students.
ReplyDeleteI had the biggest crush on Roselinda when I was younger. My church hired her dad as a pastor. Loved him and her mom too. we worked together later at a restaurant. I connected with her before she passed. I'm still shocked that she is gone.
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