RIP BILL

Thank you all for the kind words about my dear brother, Bill Rosen. Bill would very much agree with the plans for the car show/memorial in the spring. I know he will be there in spirit.

Jeannie Rosen

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I was tailing Bill in his 365 in this video that is posted on YouTube. It was on a Sunday morning drive in Wisconsin probably 2007. We had a great time that morning. Even the Roosters and a few farmers were ticked that we woke them up.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oZMp429P3U]Ferrari 512BBI W/Mod Borla Exhaust (Interior) - YouTube[/ame]
Dave

 

I feel terrible. I met Bill at a Chicago get together with Andreas, Johnny and others... Bill came over and introduced himself, we chatted very briefly and then many weeks later, out of the blue, he sent me a PM regarding my '69 restoration project (Thread). I never expected to hear from him again, so his generous PM took me by surprise.. I feel terrible because, I never responded to it. My total loss! God Bless You, Bill. Rest in peace now.
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Dave,
Thank you for posting this video.

Jeannie Rosen (Bill's sister)

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My pleasure Jeannie. Bill was/is a very unique personality. There was nothing you couldn't like about him.

Dave

 

Yes he was. Our family misses him very much.

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There wasn't anything that we didn't talk about in great detail over the years.

I may be one of few who tells jokes at funerals, but that is just how our conversations were when the diagnosis was known. We were just as we were before. If we were bridge partners, we may have become world champions the way we played off of each other during the conversations. If we lived closer in miles, it may have become a nightly ritual getting together. Great moments to remember with him. Carol thought so much of him too. We talked about him a lot, and I kept her updated with every conversation. Yes he was a special person in the World....and he touched so many....so many that I never met.....

 

Just a moment.... The song is...if you see my mother...Just kills me....sorry....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQmP5w92pE

 

Sorry this song is appropriate. Sorry, Can't play it alone any more,,,It is just killing me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQmP5w92pE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn_jBLEH87U

 

(Played by a wonderful friend in music even though he is known mostly for jazz guitar....)

I will not be posting here any more. Know that Bill wants us to go forward. It has just been a killer for me now. Sorry.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq4jcc5HI2Y&feature=related

 

No worries Norbert. We all deal with grief in our own ways.

BTW: I just finished a great read, which might interest you as well "Guitar Zero" by Gary Marcus

As for Bill: I'm looking forward to the life celebration event next year. That's not only a great idea, but it also is just so like him.

 

(I think it was one of the sax guys with Ellington when he passed. A continuation band had already begun. When asked to join, he said it is all over. [When I left the Purdue band, I was asked by some the first few years at the band reunions not there, at the football field why I wasn't with them. I told them that it was all over for me too.] {There is a gold plated conductor's whistle on a plaque at the Hall of Music at Purdue. It only has that whistle and a piece of the wooden goal post from the '67 Rose Bowl game on it. The whistle has an inscription on it, "To Al Wright with admiration Norb Ertel}. Wright unlike Bill didn't get along with anyone. Yet I felt I had to give him something out of respect for the job he was doing well.} There is nothing for me that will replace or end my feelings for Bill in a peaceful way. I just have to go through it in my own way.)

Hey, just as I have said before concerning me telling jokes at funerals. Here is one of the best I have ever heard or told. In Bill's memory:

I bagpiper in a small Scottish village was asked to play at a grave site service for a local homeless man. The man was to be the first buried at a new cemetery some distance from the village. The bagpiper accepted the the small fee offered by the village, and he was given directions to the grave site for the ceremony the next day at 11 Am. He started out the next day at what he thought was early enough time to arrive at the cemetery by 11 AM. After driving a couple of hours, he became hopelessly lost, and like a man wouldn't stop for directions. He finally came across a newly prepared field about 12 noon. There was a hole in the ground with a back hoe sitting there next to it. There were several workers sitting under a nearby tree eating their lunch.

He stopped, walked up to the newly dug hole to see that the vault lid had already been set. He went to his car and picked up his bagpipes. He walked first to the workers and said, "I will try to not disturb you, but I have to finish this." He walked to the site and began to play his heart out. The workers got up at stood around him. First with Going Home and The Lord is My Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest. The plying was so said, some of the workers began to cry. He closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and with little strength left he played Danny Boy. He stood silently for a moment, bowed and started to walk to his car.

As he walked away, he heard one of the workers say, "Mary mother of God, I never saw anything like that before, and I have been installing septic tanks for over 40 years."

We all go forward in our own way, for me it is when both Bill and I were happy together, in person, on the phone, or in best thoughts we both had for each other.....

 

Excellent!

Please keep us posted also about the planned event in Bill's honor.

 

Thoughts and prayers with the friends and family.