Courtesy of Peggy Patterson
Saint Mark UMC
The women of Saint Mark UMC who plan the annual Holiday Market decided to name their cafe after Claire Roane this year, in honor of her tireless work for the event.
Claire Roane had a way of leaving her mark on things — especially at Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Vestavia.
That’s what Peggy Patterson says of her 50-year-old fellow church member, who died in a car accident July 10.
“At Saint Mark, she did all sorts of things,” Patterson said.
Patterson gave a laundry list: children’s programs, discovery weekends, singing in the choir, serving on the finance committee and running the sound system.
Roane served as secretary of the church council for a time. She taught the teenage girls how to dance with liturgical sticks. She sponsored an orphanage in Russia. She worked with Habitat for Humanity, and she worked with the special-needs adults who attended the church.
And if Roane wasn’t doing those things, you might find her in the neonatal unit of UAB Hospital, where she worked as a research nurse coordinator, holding a premature baby.
“She would visit our knitting groups and hold up a fist to show the size caps she needed for some of the newborns,” Patterson said. “Then she’d take them up to the hospital and put them on those babies she’d been holding. She’d read research that being held helped those babies. And so every time she had a spare minute, she would go hold them.”
Sandra Adair, another Saint Mark member, said that was just how Roane lived life — always engaged and helping people.
“In her profession and in her private life, she was focused on serving others with no expectation of receiving anything in return,” Adair said.
And when it came time for the church’s annual Holiday Market, Roane would be at the church at 3 a.m. baking muffins from scratch to serve at the market’s coffee shop.
“She arrived before daybreak, and by the time other people began arriving, the halls were filled with the aroma of freshly baked muffins,” Adair said.
So after Roane’s tragic death, Adair, Patterson and others knew exactly what they needed to do — they named this year’s Holiday Market café after her. And they baked the delicious homemade muffins for which she was known.
Patterson, who served as chairperson of the market, said the hole where Roane should have been was felt. She always contributed heavily to the market, and she was well loved.
“We miss her,” Patterson said. “It’s not past tense — it’s ongoing.”
But on Nov. 14, Claire’s Café was bursting at the seams with market visitors enjoying muffins made from her recipe as well as the soup she used to serve. As they browsed the booths of handmade goods, Christmas wreaths, sweets and edible gifts, the aroma of Roane’s food lingered in the air.
And the proceeds from the market will go back to some of the things Roane cared most about: funding church outreach and house projects.
“She was just a special person to contribute in so many different ways to the church,” Patterson said. “It was a loss — she was young.”
But, Adair said, Roane’s legacy will continue to linger.
“We all miss her, and renaming the cafe was just a very small way to keep her memory alive,” Adair said.
