Annette Bowles
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Annette Bowles, 94, gave up her fight against wheelchair living on January 24, 2021. She was just worn out and did not die from Covid.
"Ray, clean the mud off your shoes and hide the chewing tobacco, she is on her way."
Annette will always be remembered for her opinionated lifestyle by her friends in the medical profession, as well as family and neighbors. She worked at Floyd Hospital early on, then at Harbin Clinic for twenty years, and Northwest Orthopedics for ten years. She loved her AAMA friends and office coworkers and was the first dually Certified Medical Assistant in Rome, GA.
In the fifties, Annette was a substitute teacher at Coosa School and was active in her church, Pisgah Baptist. She ran the household, did not tolerate rudeness, misbehaving or fishing on Sunday and took care of punishment with a hickory switch or belt.
She was an avid lover of all animals and left many beloved pets buried in the back yard, notably her Boston Terriers, Molly and Bonnie. I witnessed her giving mouth to bill resuscitation to a lifeless drowned baby duck and revived it.
Annette's house was well-known as the local emergency room in the Coosa community, where she frequently administered tetanus, penicillin and insulin shots, distributed sample medicines and free diagnoses to sick and injured friends and neighbors. Imagine doing that today!
She was a master cook and canner of garden fare, having spent thousands of hours late at night freezing food and slaving over a hot stove and kitchen sink to feed us for the coming winter. She could cook a meal for ten people, with no notice, in an hour, and not have to go to the grocery store to do it. She could fry a rabbit, make a pot of squirrel dumplings, fry a platter of fresh crappie, and even once cooked us a groundhog and a snapping turtle. Everyone, especially my friends, loved to eat Sunday lunch with us! Life was so different then... our mother was awesome!
Annette, born on June 17, 1927, outlived most of her immediate family, brothers, Dick (Lucy) and Bill (Vera), but her oldest brother, Vann Collier (Jackie), survives her in Newport News, VA. Her husband Ray preceded in death years ago, but her two sons, Alan and Lynn, and their wives Betty and Judy; her grandchildren, Mitch and Lindsay (David); and her great granddaughter, Lexi, survive her.
The family has chosen not to have a formal service for Mom, but we appreciate all of her friends, especially her caregivers at Cave Spring Manor, and we want you all to know that anyone who wishes to visit her gravesite next to Dad at Oaknoll Memorial Gardens wil be welcomed.
Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, Oaknoll Chapel, has charge of the arrangements.