Mary Hope Rooke

By Don and Joyce Watts

Mary Hope Delinda Winter was born in Noxon, Montana on September 15 1910 to Anna and Burnard Winter. Before Anna's Marriage she took her nurse's training at Battle Creek Sanitarium and worked with the famous Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. She worked as a nurse and midwife while raising her family of six girls. Mary and Pansy were the two youngest. Anna was hospitalized for several months and the girls were left alone as Burnard was away working on the railroad. During this time the older girls were taking care of Mary and Pansy. When the authorities discovered this, they came and took Mary and Pansy, placing them in foster homes in Canada without notifying their father or telling him of their location. Mary at this time was 3 years old. The Laziers, her foster parents, called her Mrie Lazier. Then didn't tell her that they were not her biological parents. However, Mary always had the feeling that she remembered sisters and a dog. Mary loved her adoptive family and grew up a Seventh-day Adventist. Her faith in God and His salvation became her life. She maintained this faith to the last and looked forward to the promise, "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am there you may be also."

When she was 16, she met Bob Rooke and they went together for a short while. During he time she was growing up, her father, Burnard, was searching for her and Pansy. He placed notices in Canadian papers. It was at this time that Burnard finally located her. He sent a letter to a neighbor of hers with pictures of her sisters and of her and her sisters. This confirmed her feelings that she had sisters and for the first time that she was adopted. He wrote through the neighbors fearing she would not get the letter if it was written to her directly. Pansy was located some years later after she had married. As Mary was illegally adopted, she was taken from the Laziers' home and after a short time placed on a train for her real home in Montana. A light note on this trip occurred when a Chinese gentleman sat beside her and tried to engage her in conversation. She could not understand his broken English and looked questioningly at him. He said, "Hulla Malla? You no understanda da English."

While at Noxon Mary met and married Lewis Metcalf, a Methodist Minister whose wife had died leaving him with two children, Robert and Dorothy. During their ten year marriage they had five children, Arthur, Harold, Joyce, Jim, and Alice. During the time they lived at Noxon, her parents moved to Junction City where their older daughters were living.

Mary took her children to Junction City and lived for a short time with her parents. She then accepted a job as a housekeeper for Eli Gift and caring for his two boys Ted and Marion. After a time they were married and had four children, Lyle, Dennis, Carol, and Christine. They were married for ten years.

After this time she worked hard raising her children as a single mother. After they had all established their homes she spent some years living with various of her children.

Then in 1975, Bob Rooke, whose wife had died in an accident, found out Mary's location and contacted her. After some correspondence, they decided to marry 50 years after their first meeting. Bob died in 1985.

After this, she again lived for some time with children and grandchildren followed by several assisted living homes. In between these assisted living homes she realized a long-held dream and moved to Alaska, where she lived for a couple of years by a daughter, Chris, before retuning to Washington.

She loved quilting, crocheting, sewing, gardening and story-telling. For a long time she tried to make dolls for each of her great-grandchildren until she couldn't see very well. Finally, in her last year, she enjoyed her own apartment at Junction City Assisted Living Facility.

Her hope was to live to see Jesus' second coming. She breathed her last, July 17, 2002, with family surrounding her. She died knowing her Lord and Maker was coming back soon to take her home.

She was buried at Sweet Home Cemetery at Cheshire, Oregon, next to her sister Pansy.