The Scent of Roses

Informant: Female/23/Korean ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

When my grandma was dying, we would spend a lot of time in her hospital room. I remember one day, toward the end of her life, all the women were around her bed praying the rosary: my mom, two aunties, and a family friend. Me and the daughter of our family friend were sitting nearby just watching.

All the women were crying and sniffling, you could hear it in between prayers. Then, all of a sudden, all of them gasped and said "Oh my God, do you smell that?" I desperately sniffed the air, hard, but smelled nothing. But all four women, plus the daughter, smelled it.

It was roses. The unmistakable scent of roses. They said it filled the whole room. So they thought, are there any flowers around? There were no flowers in the room. One of the women went outside to look too, but there were no flowers. The smell went away, but a few minutes later it came back again. This time only the four women smelled it.

I don't know how they smelled anything at all. Their noses were all completely stuffed. But I'll never forget how they all gasped at the same time and yelled, "Do you smell that? Roses!"