Orde Coombs

She sits in the morning room of her daughter’s house on Fessenden street in Northwest Washington, and as the memories come surging back, she struggles with her tears and says: “You must remember that I am 85 years old. I’m the only one left.” Her face is still smooth even though her hair is white, Her eyes are rheumy from the toll of years, but her voice is still strong and her hearing good. She is covered up this spring morning because she has not been feeling well lately, and. the stroke she had two years ago has diminished her strength, so that she now spends much of her waking hours In a wheel chair and Is constantly watched by a full-time nurse with a ferret face, fluttering hands, a gold dot pierced in the center of her forehead and whom everyone calls Frenchie. The old woman is Rosa Jones Holloman, the daughter of a slave, born November 7, 1888 to Robert Shelton Jones and Carolyn Freeman Jones who were slaves In Albemarle County, Virginia,