ST. GEORGE, Utah — Tifiny Rose’s son, Aiden, couldn’t speak, but his mom said she still knew he loved her.
"Just with the look in his eyes, his gestures, his smile, his sparkle in his eyes," she shared.
On Sunday, as the large Rose family of more than a dozen was headed to a holiday party in Salt Lake City, Aiden passed away.
One might look at the family's story of this loss and others they have suffered over the last three years as those of grief, but they're not, especially at this time of year.
This is a story about gifts.
"We have three biological children, and then we've adopted 19," Tifiny said. "Truly, they really have blessed our lives."
A former Tooele bank manager, Tifiny and her husband, Earl, a former Salt Lake City Police Department detective, moved to St. George more than a decade ago. There, she opened her dream, Tifiny’s Creperie which is usually packed for breakfast and lunch.
The couple has also adopted children with mental and physical disabilities. About 20 years ago, Aiden was their first adoptee with cerebral palsy.
Along with a lot of preparation and getting up earlier than others, Tifiny said the recipe to parenting such a large family is love.
"Oh, goodness, it is a lot of just not letting little things get to you, just figuring out what in life is really important," Tifiny explained.
But another part of that parenting has also been unimaginable grief. The Rose's son, Shawn, died in January 2023. Tifiny wears a necklace with his EKG and a teddy bear that plays his heartbeat. Eight months later, their daughter, Elise, also passed.
"There's such a sparkle in their eyes," Tifiny said of her two boys and daughter. "And when that's gone, you know that they have passed."
Out of the grief has come gifts.
While initially a skeptic about organ donation herself, Tifiny says the Rose children who have moved on, including Aiden, have provided the gift of life to others. That includes those sparkling eyes of love and, in the case of Shawn, his beating heart.
Tifiny received a letter from the mother of the eight-year-old who received Shawn's heart as a gift of life.
"We are forever grateful that you decided to help us out during what must have been such a painful time for you," the letter reads. "Your decision is and forever will be truly heroic. The transplant has improved Selena's health tremendously.
"She says she has never felt better in her life. Your family has given Selena another chance in life."
Does the love and the gifts shared make it worth the grief?
"Oh, absolutely," Tifiny said. "Absolutely. I would never change a moment in my life. There's nothing. The good, the bad, the ugly, I wouldn't change any of it."
