LINTON, N.D. - "I'm a Legionnaire Auxiliary member for more than 50 years. The Soldiers don't only save our country, they save the people, one by one. I never thought they'd save me," said Rose Silbernagl, 87, of Linton.
Rose lives on Schley Avenue, close to the courthouse.
"I've lived there since '51, and this is the first time I had to get the heck out of there," she said.
Rose is a widow, having lost her husband of 62 years two years ago. She also has a bad heart, and is on oxygen, but she'd shared her roof with four who were flooded out earlier: Larry Biedelspacher, Charlie and Lilian Abel and Lorraine Baumgartner. When her sewer backed up, she still didn't want to leave, but her 15 children called her and insisted. One said, "Ma, we listened to you all those years, now you have to listen to us!"
Sgt. Andrew Rohrich was one of the Soldiers who helped Rose get out of the water and over to the county courthouse, which serves as a clearinghouse for evacuees. Rohrich is a Linton native who now lives in Bismarck, where he works full time for the Guard, coordinating military funeral honors.
Rose has known him since he was knee high, and she joked, "There's a reason there was a flood - so I can see you guys!"
She meant Andrew and his brothers, Michael and Paul, who ran into her at the community food area in the courthouse basement.
"Their mom and I were such good friends," she said. She also ran into Nathan Meidinger, and congratulated him on his recent win of the Class B Academic All-State award. Rose worried about her granddaughter, Della, who recently had surgery, but she didn't worry about herself.
"Just have to make the best of it," she said before leaving to stay with her sister-in-law, Angie Silbernagel.
| Date Taken: | 03.24.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2009 22:42 |
| Story ID: | 31563 |
| Location: | LINTON, US |
| Web Views: | 256 |
| Downloads: | 244 |
This work, Rescuing Rose, by SGT Ann Knudson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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