Anne Rose is a parishioner of St. Jude’s Hope Church. She struggles with attending mass consistently due to clinical depression but has a kind, warm heart beneath her pain.

History

Anne Rose was born in the small town of Auburn, New Hampshire in 1911. She lost her mother to cancer when she was only three years old, and her father became sickly when she was twelve. At a young age, Anne had to take over the responsibility of caring for the house, her father, and her little sister, Betsy, and, thus, had to mature very quickly.

Anne’s father died when she reached the age of eighteen. At that time, she took over ownership of her parents’ house and got a job as a waitress at a local diner to support herself and her sister.

Once her sister Betsy reached adulthood, Anne moved out of her parents' house and married her childhood sweetheart, a carpenter named Evan Potland. The two lived happily together in a small, cozy apartment. There, Evan introduced Anne to Roman Catholicism. Despite the hard life she had led, Anne learned to welcome Jesus into her heart and officially converted to the faith two years later.

While living with her husband, Anne checked in on her sister whenever possible until her sister moved across the country. Their personalities clashed, as did their religions, and, after a series of letters, they eventually lost contact with one another in 1971.

Anne continued work at the diner until her retirement. Her husband died shortly thereafter following a long fight of cancer, and Anne did not take the loss easily. She resented God for taking away the man she loved and turned away from her religion. She began to suffer from clinical depression and, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, was admitted to a local mental institution, where she stayed on suicide watch for nearly ten years.

Anne tried to kill herself several more times while in the institution, but the staff managed to thwart each attempt.  In one particular instance, Anne tried to throw herself down a flight stairs, but orderlies helped to cushion her fall and she suffered only a leg injury as a result.

Following her injury, Anne turned her eyes back to God. She requested a Bible from one of the orderlies, and she started to read the Bible every night before bed. Though she understood little of the holy book’s contents, its words comforted her, and Anne slowly began to make progress toward her recovery.

Eventually, Anne’s depression improved to the degree that she was released from the institution. After this, Anne moved back into the apartment that she had previously shared with her husband. Lonely in her solitude, Anne started to attend St. Jude’s Hope Church every Sunday to connect with her newly-restored faith.

Lifestream

In 1994, Anne quickly learned to love the sermons given by Father Randolph Holton, one of the priests in the church. While he was never the best public speaker, Anne respected his sincerity and kindness. She knew there was something special about him, and he seemed more human than the other priests, more willing to show his flaws.

Randolph’s sermons helped Anne through her continual pain, and so one day after Mass she invited Randolph to dinner in her home.  The priest agreed, and the two had a lovely time together, during which Anne learned a lot about her faith.

Anne Rose