Nessa Velvet Rowan

William and Elisabeth Rowan gave birth to their beautiful baby girl in 1893 in Swords, Dublin, Ireland in a small, shabby one story home in the crowded section slums of the city. A year of struggling to put food on the table, money in their pockets, and have a sense of safety for his wife and daughter put William at a crossroads. He wanted to relocate his family elsewhere to a place cleaner and safer where there would be more jobs available to maintain a family living comfortably. He argued many times with his wife, Elisabeth, on what to do when finally in 1894, William and his small family embarked on a small wooden ship as stowaways headed to the American state of Virginia.

## Early Life

For Nessa Velvet Rowan, growing up in Arlington, Virginia, was especially hard because she wasn't really a social person and didn't have any friends. All that appealed to her was sit by the window of their small, two-story home, reading a book, drawing, or helping her mother around the house sometimes. Her father, William, had to work downstairs in the family tea and pastry shop, "A Taste of Swords" and was extremely busy and never had time to actually sit down and talk with his family or join them for a meal. When Nessa was barely 10 in 1903, she began to take it upon herself to help her father clean the floors and counters, wash the used dishes, bake the pastries, or walk 5 blocks down the street to pick up more tea from their supplier. This constant hard work eventually made Nessa a strong, intelligent, and independent girl.

## Death in the Family

When Nessa was 14 years old in 1903, her mother, Elisabeth, contracted some kind of new disease and became sick. She first became worried when her mother began complaining about muscle pain which later branched into not even being able to walk correctly due to her legs being in such extreme pain. What her mother had was Guillain-Barre syndrome but this particular illness wasn't even documented until 1916 and so there was no cure. A month after her mother began to complain of pain, she was found dead by her husband when he awakened next to her without a response. Since they couldn't afford to get her a nice coffin, William constructed a plain rectangular box and buried her in Arlington Cemetery. Life was never the same again; both for William and Nessa.

## Depression and Hardwork

After Elisabeth's death, Nessa's father, William became extremely depressed and refused to get up from bed, manage the shop, clean himself, or even greet the regular customers they'd get whenever they asked for him personally. After a few days enduring it, Nessa was forced to ignore her father's misery and anguish and take over the management of the shop. At 15 in 1904, she did everything and knew everything there was to know about their family shop, "A Taste of Swords". Her father still continued to be depressed and refused to do anything productive at all; not wanting to forget his wife and move on with his and his daughter's life. Nessa wasn't able to read her books, draw her paintings or pictures, take walks, or do any of the things she used to do when she wasn't responsible for the entire shop. She became extremely tired everyday working from 6 am til the closing of the shop in 9 pm.

## Another Death in the Family

Two years after the death of her mother, Elisabeth, in 1905 her father unfortunately passed away after losing the will to live long ago after he had to bury his wife. Nessa didn't know what to do after both her mother and then her father passed away and so she did the only thing she knew how to do: work.

## Life After Tragedy and Success

After her parents passed away, Nessa completely dove into the pool that was stress. She worked 24/7 and didn't leave time for any social life like a boyfriend or even friends until she met a young man of the same age named Sean in 1907. She was very cautious not to get close to him because everyone she loved sooner or later passed on. But to his persistence, they became very good friends and he at times helped her run the shop; that was now flourishing and bringing in more than 100 people a day. 14 years passed of good business and perfect friendship and Nessa had a new, bigger building to compensate for the explosion of customers in her shop. She now had her own 5 roomed apartment down the block from her moderately sized coffee shop building. She became extremely successful and actually had her best friend Sean made the manager of "A Taste of Swords" and for once she was happy.