Henrietta Rothman, née Brandrup

If it’s true that the person who dies with the most fabric wins, Henrietta (“Ret”) Rothman won hands down when she passed away on September 6, 2017.

Ret was born to create. Besides her best creations—her two lovely daughters, Jessica and Susannah—she loved to knit, quilt, sew, cross stitch, spin yarn and weave. She never met a fabric store she didn’t love.

Ret was born on March 23, 1947, in Bridgeton, New Jersey to Leonard Arnold Brandrup and  Eleanor Anne Brandrup (née Haile). She moved with her family to Charles City, Iowa in 1955. As a child she and her family traveled to Colorado. It was here that she fell in love with the West.

After graduating from Iowa State University in Ames, Ret moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she met and married Sandy Rothman. They moved to North Boulder in 1971, and their daughters were born there. When Ret and Sandy divorced, Ret raised Jessica and Susannah with the help of her neighbors and “adoptive” family Jerene and Bob Watkins and their children Richard, David and Lora.

Ret worked for 25 years at Wardenberg Student Health Center at the University of Colorado as a medical technologist. After retiring she went on to work in the housewares department at McGuckin’s Hardware for 15 years.

Some of her favorite memories were of sleep away camp in Massachusetts, her childhood nanny Dolores, taking a walking tour with her daughter Susannah in Spain, designing and planning the construction of her house, and all of her time with her three grandchildren, Max, Esther and Matilda.

Ret gave people the benefit of the doubt. She was a good friend to those closest to her. Her family hopes she was greeted in heaven with a cup of coffee and one of her beloved kitties.

Ret is preceded in death by her parents and her first stillborn daughter. She is survived by her daughters Jessica Rothman Guerra and Susannah Santamaria; her siblings Anne Stark and Leonard Brandrup, Jr.; her nephews Jamie and Brian Stark; and her grandchildren Max, Esther and Matilda.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to Intercambio (https://intercambio.org/), whose mission is to improve immigrant lives through English education and unite communities across cultures. Ret regularly donated to organizations that had a positive impact on individuals. Her passion for politics began in her youth and continued until her passing.