Leprechauns, St. Patrick Day parades and snakes
All that helps keep a 75-year-old Pa. woman young
In Girardville’s last St. Patrick’s Day parade, Rosalie Rowan Kuzma made a hit with children when she wore the homemade unicorn costume with a papier-mache headdress, complete with a golden horn.
“Kids ran off the sidewalks to have their pictures taken with the unicorn,” recalled Kuzma, a Girardville resident. “There’s something about unicorns that makes kids crazy.”
Girardville’s parade is back on March 26 after a two-year hiatus courtesy of COVID-19, and Kuzma is reviving her unicorn act.
Only this time, she’ll be “Mother Unicorn” pushing a mini float inhabited by the Leprechaun King, his court and a baby unicorn.
Kuzma spent weeks making the float entirely from scratch in her one-bedroom apartment at a senior citizens complex.
In a living room whose walls are adorned with testaments to Irish history, Kuzma talked about why, at age 75, she’s dedicated to dressing like a unicorn and marching a mile or more in a parade to honor St. Patrick.
It’s about preserving her Irish heritage, of course. Moreover, it’s about fulfilling an artistic need and retaining a forever young attitude.
“You have to have a certain amount of enthusiasm,” said Kuzma, who backpacked Ireland when she was in her 30s. “You have to be whimsical, carefree and think you’re perpetually 34.”
Carefree, whimsical
Kuzma has a serious side to her artistry.
She sculpts, writes poetry and talks to senior citizens groups and historical societies about Irish history.
Yet, fulfilling her dictum about being carefree and whimsical, she has a lighter, fun side that surfaces in her mini floats.
Using umbrella carts as a base, Kuzma creates a magical world inhabited by red-bearded, pipe-smoking leprechauns, shamrocks and St. Patrick himself.
Her mini float “St. Patrick Regrets Driving the Snakes Out
of Ireland” is ingenious in its humorous adaptation of the classic Irish tale.
At the wheel of a Jeep, St. Patrick is surrounded by about two dozen snakes as he passes a roadside marker pointing to England, naturally.
The snakes, green of course, are puppet-like creatures she made from fabric stuffed with filler and crowned with googleeyed heads made of papier-mache.
The chatter from the snakes is driving St. Patrick crazy.
One complains, “I feel sick.” Another says, “I lost my blanky.” And a particularly nagging one says, “Can I sit up front? Can I? Can I? Can I?”
St. Patrick, regretting the whole venture, mumbles, “God have mercy.”
Oh, by the way, Kuzma is looking for someone to push the snake-infested mini float in the parade.
She’s even made a St. Patrick costume, complete with a gold mitre headdress for whomever volunteers.
During the long months when COVID-19 canceled most community events, Kuzma kept busy by working on her mini floats.
“I was home, like an elf, making this stuff,” she said of her elaborate mini floats. “I went all-out.”
Rewarding work
Growing up in a Polish-Irish household in Shenandoah, she retains a great respect for the heritage of her father, Frank Kuzma.
But from a child on, she gravitated to the culture of her mother, the former Mary Rowan of Shenandoah.
In her 30s, Kuzma embarked on a journey of discovery, hiking to Doolough in County Mayo, the home of her great-grandparents. She’s been back to Ireland six times since, evidenced by a backpack covered with patches of the places she visited.
I’m proud of my Irish heritage,” she said. “And I want to display that I’m proud of it.”
Kuzma, who shares an apartment with a 34-year-old parrot named Shamus, has chosen not to marry. She made a living doing office work. Though she no longer walks the lush green land of her ancestors, Kuzma’s artistic projects keep her active as she faces the challenges of aging.
“It keeps my mind sharp,” she said. “As I age, doing things with my hands has become more important to me.”
Oh, and there’s another bonus for all her hard work.
“When I’m in the parade and the kids come up to me with their cameras,” she confided, “that’s like payment, that’s my reward.”