Quake survivor waits lifetime to revisit 1906 disaster
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
April 14, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — Rose Cliver insists that she does not have that good of a memory, but I do not think that’s quite right. I can barely remember what I did last week, and she’s just a tad fuzzy about what happened 103 years ago.
Yet, she remembers clear enough: Cliver was on top of a Bernal Heights hillside with her father, brothers and sisters, watching most of downtown San Francisco burn to the ground. She was about 3 years old.
Cliver is one of the last known survivors of the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, which, in her own inimitable words, makes her “an old bag.’’ More likely, Cliver is one of the healthiest 105-year-olds to be found, which is why she will be around to be fêted at the annual commemoration of the event at Lotta’s Fountain early Saturday morning.
Surprisingly enough, she’s never been to one before, even though she lived in San Francisco for more than
100 years. She never thought it was that big of a deal, being just a little girl at a time The City was going up in flames.
“My dad just took us up the hill” from the family home on Gate Street, she said. “The only thing I remember is that we couldn’t go in the house afterward. So my dad just pitched a tent in our backyard and we had to stay outside. We were living like Oakies in our own place. It was really a sight to see.”
Outside they remained while one of the great cities of the world was agonizingly reduced to rubble. If it seems like a distant memory to Cliver, that’s because it is — but all the details remain, even down to her street address and the time spent eating in the backyard while chaos rained down below. It was not that Cliver’s house suffered that much damage, the family was just too scared to go back into it following the earthquake.
And quite a family it was. There were 13 children in the Cliver clan. Rose was in the middle of the pack. She is the last person in her immediate family still living, though a few tried to give her a run for her money. She had a sister who lived until she was 102, and another that lived into her mid-90s.
Rose has two children, though only her son Don is still alive. Rose lives with him now at his house in Santa Rosa. That arrangement only began last July after she fell carrying her laundry down into the basement at her home in the Ingleside neighborhood.
“It’s a mystery to me how she got that laundry up and down the stairs,” Don told me. “She was using a walker to get around,
so I don’t know how she managed that trick.”
It appears you learn a few tricks after 100 or so years. And it turns out you can take Rose out of The City, but you cannot take The City out of Rose.
“The truth is, I’d rather be home; I want to be on my own,” she told me. “But the old gal is getting
really old.”
Rose has probably forgotten more than most people will ever know, but she remains lucid, energetic and more than a bit sassy. She recently received a clean bill of health from her doctor, which means her first visit to Lotta’s Fountain may not be her last.
“She’s in better shape than I am, and I’m not kidding you,” her son said. “Her doctor said she could probably live until she’s 115.”
Don really is not kidding. He’s 77 years old and there’s just not a lot of “kids” his age.
But the gene pool remains strong. Don said most of Rose’s brothers “only” lived into their late 70s and early 80s, ages most people not in their hundreds would probably be happy with.
Following the 5:11 a.m. vigil at Lotta’s Fountain, Rose will be fêted at the annual earthquake survivors’ breakfast at Lefty O’Doul’s pub, and then at a luncheon at John’s Grill. She will spend the eve at the
St. Francis Hotel, which we can also happily point to as another earthquake survivor.
Although there are probably three other people — all women — who were around the Bay Area at the time of the 1906 quake, Rose is believed to be the only native of San Francisco still alive. And there’s more than a little symbiosis there, since San Francisco, like Rose, turned out to have a pretty good fighting spirit.
“No matter how much time goes by, I’m still here,” she said. “I’m still waiting to say bye-bye one of these days, but they just won’t take me.”
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