Ten Questions With Elizabeth Rose: Author of ‘Til The Last Petal Falls
I emailed Miss. Rose ten questions, which she graciously answered as her character, Granny Demchek. Miss. Rose’s book is a spin-off of the Disney classic, Beauty and the Beast made popular by Hollywood re-edits geared for an older, more mature audience.
Granny Demchek, the classic Mrs. Potts character, is the head of the household maids, and was one of Adam’s (the Beast) nurses when he was younger.
TEN Q’s WITH GRANNY:
1. Did you always want to lead a life of domesticity or did you have oter dreams and aspirations, when you were young?
You act as if domesticity isn’t a big enough dream, young lady. I always wanted to be in the business of watching children, though if I’m going to be honest I originally wanted to open myself a daycare. I was raised by a single mother, and it was always my own dream to help other gals who were like my mother. I ended up never making enough money, sadly enough. I got married in the 50s, to a Charlie Demchek. We were married for ten years before Chuck passed away of lung cancer. I kept nannying throughout his illness, to pay the bills, but there was no way to make enough to open my own center. Not enough time to make my own children, either. I started working for Mr. Emilie’s father when Adam was first born. I was in my late forties then.
2. Why didn’t you open up your own daycare? Did life get in the way? Were you so in love that you willingly threw your dreams away?
Well I was always so busy taking care of Chuck, and raising money with what nannying jobs that I could land. It’s not so easy to take care of an ailing husband, and we didn’t have enough to just hospitalize him. I was the bread winner for our family; I didn’t have time for opening a business. Though I’d say it’s a bit romantic to say that love made me throw away my dreams. It’s silly to think that people can’t change their dreams. My dream was to open a daycare, but then I married Chuck and I found that my dream wasn’t pressing anymore. What was more pressing was making sure that my husband was comfortable, and that we didn’t end up on the streets. Dreams are wonderful, if you can achieve them, but they aren’t the most important thing in the world. Dreams are dreams; people are real.
3. You mention “our family” many times. Do you have children? Did you want children? Do you still want children or is taking care of children during working hours satisfying that need?
I don’t have children, though I did want children- we just ran out of time and health, and I never had the desire to remarry. I haven’t taken care of actual ‘children’ since Mr. Emilie, however. It’s something that I wanted when I was young. Not something that I needed, as wonderful as children are. I think I was more drawn to the ‘taking care’ part of it, and less the ‘children’. Though, Mr. Emilie will always be a child to me.
4. How was taking care of Mr. Emilie as a child? That must have been interesting.
‘Interesting’ is one way to put it, that’s for sure. Mr. Emilie’s always been a bit of a trouble child, no wonder, with how his parents behave… He’s a bit of an attention-hog, to put it lightly. I suppose it’s because he’s a lonely child, but… there should be a limit. I shouldn’t be saying too much about it. Mr. Emilie’s business is his business, he’ll be mad enough as it is that anything’s gotten out of the mansion, even something as small as an interview.
5. Sounds like Mr. Emilie’s got a temper to him. Has his temper ever flared dangerously?
That’s none of your business, young lady. It does nobody any good to be going around flapping their lips when they shouldn’t be.
6. Okay, I’m sorry for offending you. Onto other topics…Is there any leading ladies in his life right now that you don’t like? Considering that you practically raised the boy yourself.
All the ladies that have been around Mr. Emilie have been with him as staff since he was young, and aren’t hardly his age. He’s never had much interest. And that new girl, Jolee, well she’s sweet and smart but I don’t think he likes her all that much. He gets all worked up every time she does just about anything. Pity, too. She’s a pretty little thing, maybe could have had something there. Hopefully he’ll warm up to her someday.
7. So, there might still be the hint of love in the air. What about you? Are the rumors true that some head butler, Kron, I think it is, has as a budding romance with you? Everyone is just dying to know and I know you stated before that you are not looking for love anymore, but has love found you?
Ah, you should be a writer of romance, my girl. But Horace- Mr. Kron- is much too young for me, by a good twenty years at least. Even if he wasn’t such a pup, he’s also got quite the rat up his rear, if you know what I mean. My Chuck was a cheerful, kind man who never minded the messier parts of life. Horace needs everything in a neat, orderly line. I see him as a brother- I have fondness for him, yes, but it’s a kind of fondness that I’ve developed seeing as if I didn’t, I’d surely go insane up in that mansion. Besides, one romance is enough, don’t you think? Love as a young passion is rather tiring. I had my fill of that, and now I have the time to kick back and enjoy my tea. Who needs the messiness of love when they have comfort?
8. Ah…so not a romantic, I presume? Well, then time might change your mind yet. So now that you live a life of comfort, how is that new position of yours at the house?
I’ve had eighty or so years for life to change my mind dear, and it hasn’t been doing all that good of a job. And the position suits me well. I get to take care of Mr. Emilie, I get to enjoy the beauty of Aspen, I get to take care of my girls. A lot of the people Mr. Emilie takes in as staff have very few other chances out in the world. It does me good to be around them, they’re a great bunch to live out my last days with.
9. So, no plans for the future?
Do we really need plans to be happy? I planned all those years when I was young, and all it didn’t get me any farther than anyone else. No, no. When you’re older, you’ll learn that sometimes you can be happier if you don’t plan. I could be happy going tomorrow- I could be happy staying with Mr. Emilie and the mansion for thirty more years or more- I could be happy being transferred to South Africa within the week. You don’t need to plan for the future when you get to my age, you know that so much can change in an instant. It’s better not to. Every day is a wonderful surprise. Nothing is disappointing.
10. I know there are many things that go unsaid. If you could say anything that you censored to anyone, who would that be and what didn’t you say?
You sure like the hard questions, don’t you dear? I suppose the only things even worth being said would be to my Chuck- and I’d tell him that I did, in fact, hate his mother and never enjoyed her green bean casserole. She never liked that I took her baby away from her so young, you see, and she tried to make me out to be some kind of bimbette witch every chance she got. I put up with it, though, because I didn’t want to worry Chuck any more, not with him being so sick and all. But putting up with her evilness didn’t let me keep him a day more than the Lord had already planned. I still lost him. All it did was give me more years to re-convince myself that I was worth something. In fact, if that, that witch wasn’t already dead, I’d…. well, ladies don’t talk about some things in public. I’d rather tell Chuck, at least he might get a good laugh out of it.
Thank you for reading!
Be sure to check out ‘Til The Last Petal Falls by Elizabeth Rose!
You will be seeing the review posted here sometime this year.
So if you are still hesitant, be sure to check back in with my blog.
Home Sweet Phoenix Cove 