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MEMOIR BAG
Memoirs of Life at the Roedde House:

The Sleeping Beauty Room (back to Memoir Bag)

If you look way up at the top of the Roedde house, you will see a tower (called a turret).

Grandma Roedde used to put her beloved houseplants up in the tower where, as you can imagine, with all those windows, the plants thrived. One of the only times Grandmother was ever cross was when her children or the grandchildren knocked her plants over.

Inside Tower

Mr. Rattenbury, the architect that designed this house for Grandpa and Grandma, had put the tower in especially for Grandmother. Grandmother Matilda loved the sea. Heligoland, the island country she came from, was so small that no matter where you were on the island you could see the sea. So when the house was being designed, Grandpa promised her a house from which she could see the sea. That's why the tall, hexagonal-shaped turret was built. Of course, today you can't see the sea from Roedde House but in those days there were not very many houses in the West End of Vancouver.

But I really doubt that she had much time for climbing two flights of stairs and looking out at the sea. Grandma had six children, one of whom died in childhood, and another who was adopted.

But to my sister Kae and me, this was a real sleeping beauty tower, and we loved to play up there. My Aunt Anna was allowed to sleep in the turret, with the windows all the way around. One night, however, Grandfather Roedde saw Anna out on the roof, walking in her sleep. After that she was no longer allowed to sleep there.

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