The Mystery that Started It All (part 4)

James, Annie, and Eva Parham

Note:  This is a continuation from previous posts.  To start back at part 1, click here.

It has been almost four years since I wrote my last blog post about my Grandma Eva's mystery life before she married my grandfather.  So for those of us (myself included) who need a brief recap, here goes...

The family story, and the starting point for my research, was that at a young age Grandma Eva was sent away from her home in Hartwell, Georgia to live with her grandmother Parham and work at the boarding house that Grandma Parham owned and ran in Elberton, Georgia.  While she was in Elberton, Eva met and married a young man and they had a baby together.  My parents thought the baby's name was Bonnie.  No one knew the name of Bonnie's father.  Eva's husband left her at some point, and afterward Bonnie got very sick.  Eva had no one to help her with getting medical care for Bonnie, and Bonnie eventually died and was buried in Elberton.

Well, that's part of the family story.  I will now share... (in my best Paul Harvey voice) the rest of the story.

Grandma Betty

Grandma Betty and me
Christmas 1977

I have struggled a lot with how to start this blog post.  First, I realize it has been over two years since I have written a post.  Since my last post about my maternal grandfather's death, the world has completely turned upside down - in more ways than one.  Because of the pandemic, I am now primarily working from home, and I have been relocated by the law firm where I work from their Spartanburg office to their Greenville office.  This means that on days when I do have to go into the office, my commute is now about 20-25 minutes versus the 35-40 minutes that it was for almost nine years.  That extra 10-15 minutes makes a huge difference!

But even more recently, the life of every single member of the Foster side of my family was rocked to the core when we - somewhat suddenly - lost our matriarch, my Grandma Betty, on March 9, 2022.  My last living grandparent is now gone.