Miss Leila Foote Rose: "Gather the rose buds while ye may"

Miss Leila F. Rose, born 1848, was a daughter of Simri Rose, the developer of Rose Hill Cemetery.  She died at the young age of seventeen years, and was laid to rest in the family burial lot.

A tribute to young Leila was printed in the 5th August 1865 Macon Telegraph (Georgia) newspaper.  I enjoyed reading it, so thought I'd share it here.  I was especially impressed with the implication, no matter how benign, that Leila went through some growing pains -- a notion that certainly applies to teenagers to this day, more than 150 years after her death.

OBITUARY.
LEILA F. ROSE.
"Gather the rose buds while ye may,
For time is ever flying;
The lovely flower that blooms to-day,
To-morow shall be dying."

How forcibly are we reminded of the truth of the above thought, by the early and untimely death of our young friend.

"Your life is even a vapour that continueth for a little while, and then vanisheth away."

The promises of love and friendship serve for the time to brighten the future prospect and awaken joyous anticipations which dissipate the shadows that early begin to gather around the pathway; but like all the hopes of earth, they must die in disappointment.  If we taste them, it is only to quicken our thirst for a deeper draught, and then -- to feel more painfully the loss of short-lived pleasures which were once our own.

The calm dignity, the eminent social qualities, the urbanity of our young friend had gathered around her a large circle of associates, who appreciated the pleasures of her society.

Three years ago she felt the importance of seeking more enduring pleasures than could be obtained in the fitful enjoyments of the world.  She sought the peace of heart which comes from above, the gift of grace, the value of which is seemingly enhanced by a consciousness of moral and religious rectitude.  Under the abiding and cheering conviction that she had obtained the "pearl of great price," she united with the Baptist church of this city, of which she remained a member until taken to the church triumphant.

Under the impulses of her vivacious young nature, the peculiar temptations of the times, and the influence of young companions, she, like thousands of others who have enjoyed much longer experiences in walking the "path of the just," wavered for a time, but soon saw and felt her folly and abandoned it.

On her dying bed she enjoyed this sentiment, which she requested a friend to sing,

"Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God;
He to save my soul from danger
Interposed His precious blood."

Her many good qualities of mind and heart bid fair to develop a true, noble and useful woman, and constitute her an ornament of the church, but at the early age of seventeen years, she has been called to a seat in the upper sanctuary.  She died in the calm and full assurance of her acceptance with God through the merits of His Son.

"Early, bright, transient, chaste as the morning dew,
She sparkled, was exhaled and went to heaven."

Marion Preston Rose (1840-1861), Leila Foote Rose (1848-1865), and Annie Rose Ross (1850-1888) were sisters.  Other siblings, though unknown to these three, were mentioned here.  Edgar Alfred Ross (1850-1929) was the husband of Annie.  He married again, a few years after Annie's death, to Fanny Prescott (1857-1938).

The flip side of this granite obelisk bears the inscription for Simri Rose (1799-1869) and his wife Lavinia Blount Rose (1812-1883).