Louise Rossetti turned tragedy into inspiration

SAUGUS – Louise Rossetti was never one to miss a race.There had been years when she had run in more than 300 so when the 21st annual Louise Rossetti Women’s 5K in Beverly rolled around on June 18, nothing was going to keep her from attending even though the 92-year-old Saugus woman was in a nursing home and her health was failing.So, Mrs. Rossetti made it to the race by ambulance with the assistance of hospice and a wheelchair. “She was at the finish line greeting people,” her son, Peter Rossetti, said. “It was really nice because there was a team from the nursing home (Saugus Center Genesis) who did the walk and came back with her. I think there were eight or 10 of them.”Mrs. Rossetti died earlier this week, one day after her 93rd birthday.Pretty much anyone who has been involved in the local running scene knows or knows of Mrs. Rossetti. She was in her late 50s, early 60s when she took up running, but once she got going, she never stopped. She got her start on the suspended track at the old Lynn YMCA on Market Street – her choice of footwear being a pair of Keds (running shoes hadn’t quite come on to the scene at that point).”I think it was kind of therapeutic for her,” Peter Rossetti said, explaining how it helped her cope after her daughter (his sister), Suzanne Rossetti, was murdered in Arizona in 1981.Donna (Rossetti) Bailey, Mrs. Rossetti’s other daughter, agreed.”After Suzi died, it was her therapy. She would talk to Suzanne all the time while she ran. That was her way (of getting through the tragedy).”Mrs. Rossetti was able to run/walk the race named in her honor up until four years ago. She also, until this year, never missed Tufts 10K. She was one of the original runners when it started in 1997 as the Bonne Bell mini marathon.”I think she really enjoyed the camaraderie with the different runners,” Peter Rossetti said. “She kind of took a lot of people under her wing, sometimes to her detriment. She was always helping them out, driving them places.”Both Rossetti and Bailey said their mother was very independent and would think nothing of just hopping in the car with her girl friends and hitting up a road race.”My sister and I would see her race once in a while, but for the most part, she went off on her own, her and her girlfriends,” Rossetti said. “Most of them were younger than she was. She would just drag whoever she could get and convince them they could do the walk while she did the run. Her running towards the end was not the fastest.”Rossetti and Bailey said their late father, Peter Rossetti, wasn’t into running, but was very supportive of their mother, who at one point belonged to eight running clubs. Bailey said what was great about her mother was that she had the ability to inspire others. She didn’t have the typical runners body, but she didn’t care.”She would say to people, ‘I’m the one with the Dolly Parton top and the football player legs.’ She did it because she loved it,” Bailey said. “She loved meeting people and she loved the fact young people thought it was a cool thing to do. Shewould say ‘I might be the last one in, but that’s ok.’ She always had that smile on her face.”One of the highlights of her running career, Rossetti said, was being asked to carry the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic torch for a stretch of about a quarter mile along a road in Charlestown.Although running was her passion, Mrs. Rossetti was also a writer and she was involved in an organization call Parents of Murdered Children. She also enjoyed hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail with her girl friends, staying over night in the huts along the way.Rossetti said she would come into the office (the family-owned Rossetti Insurance) but in later years, not a lot of work got done.”I think she mostly did crossword puzzles and filled out applications for races,” Rossetti joked.”She ran a great race,” Bailey said. “We have to keep that in mind. She inspired so many people … both Peter and I think how lucky we are to have someone we