Rosa D. Malave, age 59, of Altamonte Springs, Florida, passed away on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024, at the AdventHealth Orlando Hospital.
Rosa was born in New Haven, Connecticut on January 21st, 1965. The family moved to Florida in 1979. She graduated from Apopka High School and worked for Drew Medical, now known as SimonMed, for many years.
At a very young age she taught herself how to ride a bike and would race all the boys in elementary school and not one could beat her. When she got to middle school, she enrolled herself in all the school activities such as ballet, tap, jazz dancing, gymnastics and the choir. In high school she joined the girls’ softball team. She used to ride her 10-speed bike for miles and jog as if the road was unending. Even after having two kids, she would join the gym to maintain her weight and health.
She still loved doing all those things, plus singing and dancing until, after extensive blood work and research, she was finally diagnosed with Scleroderma, which is a chronic connective tissue disease generally classified as one of the autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Her whole body and organs were affected especially her lungs. She was kept alive with oxygen tanks until finally her lungs gave up on her.