Developing Rosemary’s Memorial Website

In honor of my beloved mother, Rosemary Jenkins—a dedicated educator, loving mother, and adventurous spirit—I’ve embarked on creating a memorial website that celebrates her life, legacy, and the countless lives she touched. This post shares the journey, technologies, and heart behind bringing rosemarymemorial.org to life.

Memorial site homepage screenshot

Inspiration & Content

Drawing from the heartfelt content on rosemarymemorial.org, the site features:

• Obituary: A tribute to Rosemary’s life story, early years in Central City, Iowa, and her 32-year teaching career across Iowa and Florida.
• Education: Highlights of her academic journey—from earning her Bachelor’s at the University of Northern Iowa to mentoring future educators at USF.
• Family: Celebrating her role as a devoted mother to three sons and proud grandmother to eight grandchildren.
• Adventure: Showcasing her spirit of exploration, from Colorado mountain views to Florida sunshine and beyond.
• Gallery: A curated collection of photos capturing her warm smile, loving family moments, and unforgettable adventures.

Tech Stack & Architecture

• Astro: Leveraging Astro’s content-focused architecture and MDX support to combine Markdown and React components for dynamic page layouts.
• Kebab-case Naming: Ensuring consistency across src/pages and src/components with kebab-case filenames (e.g., rosemary-memorial.mdx, hero-banner.astro).
• Cloudflare Workers: Powering the serverless contact form API, deployed at src/functions/api/contact.ts, to handle inquiries and memories with a seamless, scalable backend.
• Storage: Transitioning from file-based operations to Cloudflare KV storage to avoid 500 errors in production and ensure reliable data persistence.
• Styling: Using Tailwind CSS for rapid, responsive styling and a clean, modern design that honors Rosemary’s vibrant personality.
• Deployment: Hosted on Cloudflare Pages with automatic GitHub integration, providing continuous deployment on every commit.

Challenges & Solutions

• Serverless File System Limitations: Cloudflare Workers do not support traditional file system APIs. We refactored file uploads and data storage to use KV and durable objects, eliminating 500 errors in production.
• Case-Sensitive Imports: Migrated all component and page filenames to kebab-case to resolve import path issues on different operating systems.
• Content Management: Structured MDX files under src/content/professional/projects for scalable content updates and version control.

Honoring a Legacy

Building rosemarymemorial.org has been both a technical and emotional journey. By combining thoughtful design, robust serverless architecture, and rich content inspired by my mother’s remarkable life, this memorial website stands as a testament to her enduring impact as an educator, mother, and adventurer.

“To teach is to touch a life forever.”

Mom the Eternal Teacher

Feel free to explore the site and share your own memories or stories—each contribution keeps Rosemary’s spirit alive. If you encounter any feedback or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you.