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Elder Stories
Rose Medicine Elk, Last Member of the Women's Quiltwork Society
Rose Medicine Elk talks with Father Emmett "It was a joy for me to show Rose how the remote control for her T.V. worked. She was delighted to at long last have a television set, even though she was intimidated by the remote control." - Father Emmett |
Not long ago, I visited Rose Medicine Elk, who once did some of the most beautiful Cheyenne beadwork I've ever seen. Today, her fingers are crippled with arthritis and her eyesight is failing. Making beaded necklaces, earrings, coin purses and buckskin dresses has become almost impossible. She is no longer able to supplement her meager income.
That day I found Rose very sad and disappointed that she couldn't watch Princess Diana's furneral and Mother Teresa's rites on television. It might strike many of you as odd that a poor, elderly Cheyenne woman whose grandfather fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn would have been so profoundly moved by the deaths of two women in far off lands, but Rose really cared.
Before leaving, I promised to do my best to find a television set. Well, I ended up buying a $200 television that was worth millions in the happiness that it brought her. When I came in carrying the TV set, words cannot express the grateful look on Rose's beautiful, wrinkled face and in her dancing eyes. It was an absolute joy for me when I explained how the remote control saved her from struggling to her feet to change channels or to adjust the volume. Needless to say, Rose watched the gracious Queen of Hearts and the much loved Mother Teresa "move on to the next camp," as the Cheyenne say.
