This article was first published in the Abiquiu News, December 8, 2023
by Melissa J White
I met Rosalía Triana in 2008 at the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive. We were both in the screenwriting track. When her film, “Epi’s Dilemma” was made, she asked me to design the postcard. When I got my first job as a script supervisor, she taught me how to score a script in two hours in a little cafe in Española. When I made my short film, “Wastewater,” she was my scripty. She encouraged me to start a writing class and she came every Sunday for two years, only missing those days when her students were performing. Over the last 15 years, we would help each other on as many film and writing projects as possible. Her voice was always full of laughter and generosity.
Rosalía often spoke of synchronicity—she would defend its existence, I would defy it, all in good fun. On the last Monday she was in hospice, I bought a small, hand-made, electric birch tree with lights on the branches. I added AA batteries and placed it on her altar to brighten it. Each night it would light at 7:01 pm and turn off six hours later. That Friday night, one of her caregivers was in her room when the tree lit up. Minutes later, Rosalía took her last earthly breath. I could have added batteries and turned on that tree any time on Monday, yet I did it exactly four days before she died. There are 1440 minutes in a day—you do the math.
Rosalía believed in synchronicity, but I believe she was the embodiment of it herself by connecting people at exactly the right time in their lives to the thing that they love. The birch tree is now on my altar reminding me of Rosalía’s magic at 7:01 pm every evening.
Photo ©melissajwhite 2009