Rachel Beth Rolfs

Rachel Beth Rolfs, 38, of Topeka, transitioned from her life on Earth, Tuesday, October 21, 2014 at Yavapai Regional Medical Center in Prescott, Arizona. Since her advanced cancer diagnosis July 10, 2014, she had been on a hero's journey to become a cancer survivor, living each moment passionately and authentically. She became a teacher and mentor for everyone whose path she crossed.

Rachel was born January 5, 1976 in Lawrence, Kansas, the daughter of LaVetta (Westphal) Rolfs, and Leland E. Rolfs. She was a graduate of Topeka Collegiate School, Topeka High School, and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa. While a student at Topeka Collegiate, she fell in love with the Russian language under the guidance of Gail Franklin, and continued her studies of Russian at Topeka High School with Larry Lonard. She visited Russia and Ukraine several times throughout high school, and her family in Topeka hosted Ukrainian exchange students while Rachel was in high school. At Grinnell, where she studied Russian and Elementary Education, she met many wonderful life-long friends and developed her Russian language skills even further by spending her junior year living with a family, and studying in Moscow.

Rachel's unique student teaching experience allowed her to work with children in a school in Chicago, in which she taught K-8 Russian, and in a regular elementary classroom, as well. After college, Rachel worked in Chicago for a year in various temp jobs, and began to learn how much she enjoyed the world of finance and bookkeeping. She then moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where she taught in a pilot reading program at the elementary level. When Rachel moved back to Kansas, she enjoyed the experience of teaching at Prairie Moon Waldorf School in Lawrence.

Rachel's goal, as a young adult, was to spend each summer doing something different, in addition to living in a new location each summer. These summer adventures included being a camp counselor at a girl's camp in Wisconsin, a rafting guide on the Poudre River in Colorado, working in an exclusive summer day camp in Chicago, traveling to Russia and Scotland, and going to summer school while living with her Grammy in Hays, Kansas, and planning and implementing a large family reunion.

Family and friends were grateful for Rachel's ability, and the easeful, and joyful way she handled money, bookkeeping, and office management. She excelled in math, and kept books for various small businesses, as well as helping them to organize and become more efficient, and easeful in their day to day business dealings. Rachel's role as organizer, financial advisor, office manager, and bookkeeper supported three family businesses: The Learning for Life Center, Greenlight Construction, and various rental properties.

Rachel inhabited her home with quietude, solitude, gratitude and with utter grace, making space to meditate, cook and be a homebody. Her loving apprenticeship in the kitchen started with her maternal grandmother, Iona Westphal, who cooked and baked with Rachel, and called Rachel, "My Little Pancake Girl."

Her paternal grandmother, Ardelle Rolfs, called her "Sweet Rachel," and she has always been just that! She found happiness in sharing that sweetness and love in making, packaging and mailing gifts to people; creating special birthday cakes for friends and family, and cooking and eating healthy, organic and local food. Her name, Rachel Beth, means "Gentle Lamb Dedicated To God" and it fit her perfectly.

Rachel had a lifelong love of art, music, theater, and musical theater. Rachel especially loved movies, and often saw them on the first day in the theater. Although Rachel was endlessly patient, anyone close to her would know better than to try to reach her when the Academy Awards were broadcast each year. An avid reader, she adored the whole series of Harry Potter books, the Seth books, and spiritually oriented books like Michelle Small Wright's book, Behaving as If the God in All Life Mattered, Dying To Be Me, by Anita Moorjani, and Eben Alexander's book, Heaven Is Real.

Rachel was deeply passionate, an innate dancer, a joyful cook, and a compassionate friend. She was both very serious and very witty, something her friends and family delighted in over the course of her life. Her love of making things went back to childhood, and as a seven-year-old, she wrote her own book, My Rainbow Book, which explains a lot, considering how much she surrounded herself with, wore, and enjoyed rainbow colors. As a teen, she created and sold iridescent jewelry of all colors. Her earrings and pins were quite popular at art fairs, and with friends and family.

Rachel has always been drawn to organizations that support spirituality and sustainability, such as the Kansas Area Watershed Council, The Council Grove Conference, and ISSSEEM. She found a mentor in Art Schreiner, who shared these interests and visions. Together, with others in the community, they started Four Oaks Farm, a five-acre community garden project near the Kansas River in North Topeka.
Rachel married Flint Rogers on November 11, 2007, and although they divorced later, they remained good friends. Rachel was gifted at friendship, something her diverse group of friends knew well. She was especially close to her younger brother, Micah, who, with her help, started Greenlight Construction in 2006. She spent days holding his hand and singing to him when he died in January of 2010.

When Rachel first began having health issues, she was so relieved to finally have a diagnosis (even of cancer of the biliary ducts and liver) that she dressed up with family members and friends in wigs, tiaras and feather boas to parade through the hospital. After receiving news from various oncologists about how there was nothing to do but prepare to die, Rachel made a decision to, in her own words, "change or change," and to become a warrior goddess, fighting and loving for her life. She spent her final months undergoing advanced holistic therapies and low-dose chemotherapy at Partners in Healthcare Naturally in Prescott, Arizona. All her life, she loved giving and caring for others; in her final months, she let herself receive healing and love.

She is survived by her mother, LaVetta Westphal-Rolfs, her father, Leland E. Rolfs, her mother's partner and Rachel's dear friend, Verne Brien, her father's wife, Denise Rolfs, and step siblings, Mike Waters, and Jennifer Waters. In addition, she is survived by many loving aunts, uncles, cousins, family members, and friends.

Preceding her in death, were her brother, Micah Seth Rolfs, her maternal grandparents, Verne E. Westphal, and Iona M.(Pratt) Westphal, paternal grandparents, Marvin E. Rolfs, and Ardelle L. (Baker) Rolfs, and uncle, Rev. Martin L. Massaglia.

The family will receive friends from 9:00– 10:00 a.m., Saturday, November 1, 2014 at the Penwell-Gabel Mid-Town Chapel, 1321 SW 10th. Ave., Topeka, Kansas. A Celebration of Rachel's Life will be held from 10:00 -11:30 a.m. at the funeral home. This service will be followed by a procession to the graveside service at the Penwell–Gabel Cemetery from Noon – 1 p.m. After the burial, everyone is invited to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka, 4775 SW 21st St, Topeka, KS 66604, for a potluck lunch and a time of sharing and singing together.

The family welcomes your stories and comments, and suggests contributions in Rachel's name be made to the Kansas Area Watershed Council, P. O. Box 1512, Lawrence, KS 66044, the International Society for The Study of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine, (ISSSEEM), P.O. Box 297, Bolivar, Missouri 65613, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka, or The Learning for Life Center, 1709 SW Randolph Ave, Topeka, KS 66604.


To leave a special message for Rachel's family, please visit the guestbook below.