Meet Your Neighbor: Rosie Twiner

By Sarah Grace Coleman

Twiner with one of the possums she rehabilitated

Rosie Twiner is a long-time resident of Wesson, where she has lived since she was in fifth grade. She is married to Chase and is a mother to two boys, Reese, 7, and Chastin, 15. She says she fondly remembers Mrs. Patty’s Snack Shack and getting snow cones there.

“Mrs. Patty was the kindest lady ever, and she fueled our summers with the snow cones,” said Twiner. Twiner also spent many summers at Lake Lincoln, where she still visits with her family to partake in geocaching, disc golf and fishing.

Twiner says she is a big animal lover. She has two cats, Dee and Winnifred; a German shepherd, Maverick; and two bunnies, Bunnicula, named after the children’s book, and Colosso, named after the evil rabbit character on The Thundermans television show. In addition, she recently rehabilitated four baby possums.

Twiner is also very passionate about snakes that are native to Mississippi and educating people on them. She frequently helps with catching and re-locating snakes in her spare time.

In one particular instance, she helped relocate an eastern hognose snake.

“[Eastern hognose snakes are] the coolest to me,” said Twiner. “They’re very dramatic…they pretend to be dead. If you touch them, or if you scare them, their defense mechanism is for them to flip over on their back and start writhing and moving and pretending that they’re dying; and they’ll just lay there in the dirt upside down with their tongue hanging out.”

Twiner is currently not partnered with any snake-oriented organizations, but rather considers it a hobby.

She also uses snake-catching as a way to start conversations and minister to others about her other passion, her relationship with Jesus Christ. 

“I would say because my faith in Jesus Christ is at my core, it is the one thing that I believe to be true in this world; it's the one thing that makes me who I am. I’m not just some random girl that's covered in tattoos and piercings. That's who I am, but I also have a story of where Jesus Christ has brought me from and so everybody has a story,” said Twiner.

“At work, I get to talk to all of these students that have not always had an easy life,” continues Twiner. “Many of them have gone through or are going through things that are hard…and so I’m getting to talk to my students, getting to talk to people that I’m removing snakes from their garages. I’m getting to build a relationship with these people and talk about where they’re at in their life and their need for a savior and their need to feel something that's bigger than this world. I know what he did for me, so I want to tell everybody about that.”

Twiner is a member of Beauregard Community Church. She gave her life to Jesus on October 31, 1999, and was baptized that same month at Hazelhurst Westside Baptist Church.

Twiner attended Copiah-Lincoln Community College, where she studied art. In 2022, she returned to Co-Lin as the Workforce Secretary. Two years later, she transferred to Adult Education Academic Assistant.

“That’s actually a really funny story, because, had you told me when I was eighteen years old that I would be returning to Co-Lin one day, I would have laughed in your face,” said Twiner.

She says she loves getting to work with some of her previous instructors and says her favorite part of the job is getting to know students and their backgrounds.

What are your hobbies?

I have a huge reading collection. The walls of my living room are lined with books. Some are classics, and some are on my to-be-read list. I still love music, whether I’m at work, at home or at church, that's just kind of my thing. One of the best parts about being a mom is that I get to give my awesome musical taste to my kids, so it’s a huge accomplishment when I hear them playing a really good 90’s rock song. I feel like I’ve made it as a mom there.  Every now and then, I’ll decide that I may want to pick up a paint brush, but I’m a little bit too busy for that these days.

Are you a reader?

I am always reading. I try to do that at least once a day. My current journey is reading through the Bible in a year, but, in addition to that, I am currently reading a book by Bill O’Reilly called Killing the Witches.  My angsty teenage heart would tell you that I always have room for a good romance novel, Calling Hoover, obviously. I do love a lot of historical pieces. The older I get, I find myself reading a lot more of that, but I don’t have a specific genre; I’m kind of open to anything.

How about music?

I love everything, and I do mean that. Any time that my playlist is on, you’re going to hear a lot of Fleetwood Mac, but then you’re also going to hear maybe some Metallica and Pearl Jam. There’s a lot of worship music thrown in these days, so Elevation Worship and Forrest Frank is one my kids enjoy, too. I would say that my musical taste is very much like me. I am a free-spirit. I am very much kind of a wildflower when it comes to music, because I can appreciate all of it. I just love music that makes you feel some type of way, whatever that is.

Do you go to the theater or movies?

I try to get to the Brookhaven Little Theater as much as I can. I kind of credit my love for theater to one of my high school teachers, Mr. Rob Martin. He took us to see A Christmas Carol one time in high school, and I fell in love with the theater at that moment; so I do try to visit the Brookhaven Little Theater as much as I can and support them.

If you won a lot of money in the lottery, how would you spend it?

The first thing I would do would be to give some to our church, just because our church has grown exponentially over the last six months. I would love to be able to build on to our church for the people that are coming in. Then I think I probably would be pretty boring with it. I would build houses all around mine, so that all of my family members could move right there and we could just have a big commune where we’re all together, doing life together.

How would you change the world?

When I grew up, I was kind of a weirdo; I would venture to say that I’m still kind of a weirdo. Obviously, I don’t fit the mold of a traditional Southern girl. I am, in fact, covered with tattoos and piercings, and my hair may be really neon colors on any given day. So, as a kid growing up here, that was super hard; and I hope that, not necessarily changing the entire world, but I hope that I am changing my part of the world just by loving people the correct way, loving people the way that Jesus does. Because I needed that growing up, and I hope that whenever the alternative kids or the artsy kids or the weird kids come in contact with me that they leave me knowing that there is somebody that loves them and cares about them and accepts them the way that they are. So, I don’t know about changing the world, but I do think that I am - I pray that I am - changing the people that I come in contact with just by loving them the way Jesus loves me.