Roosendaal: Retires from Gillies

Continued from C7 to pay her bill. The next day Don called to see if she was willing to come back to work.

She returned to work, as long as it wasn’t full time.

Roosendaal uses her first name Phyllis professionally. However, she’s known by her nickname, Boots. When she was a little girl, Roosendaal’s father Arie Noteboom sold shoes at Lynden Department Store and brought her a little pair to wear. The shoes were so large on her that they looked like boots. It became her nickname on the spot.

As Roosendaal’s daughter Lori Scholten congratulated her via Facebook, the comments came rolling in.

Kathy Poortinga wrote: “Boots, Congratulations on your work years. Always ‘classy’ and comforting to see you at the many memorial services. Now enjoy your retirement.” Donna DenBleyker wrote: “What a gift you were and still are to many people.”

Alsum said Roosendaal is “a smart dresser and presents well.” Roosendaal’s daughter Lori Scholten, standing by her at the reception, said she agreed with that.

Roosendaal said she tended to take a nice black skirt and pair it with a number of different blouses. Coworker Ron Hendricks had told her she should have written down the names of all of the funerals she had helped with. Roosendaal said she wished she had but it would be hundreds of names.

Even though the job focuses on relationships with grieving families, it also forms strong bonds with coworkers.

On one occasion, Roosendaal and a coworker transported flowers to a service in Ferndale. They rounded the corner too quickly and the flowers went flying and so did the water.

They were horrified, laughed hard, and made sure to fix everything nicely when they got to the location. They also drove more carefully on corners in the future.

Between the services and visitations, Roosendaal said her most favorite role has been to “meet the families at the door and go put my arm around them and stand with them for a moment and then leave them to have privacy.”